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Waste Management, Inc. is a holding company and all operations are conducted by its subsidiaries. When the terms the Company, we, us or our are used in this document, those terms refer to Waste Management, Inc., together with its consolidated subsidiaries and consolidated variable interest entities.
$239.31
$2.94 (-1.21%)
EOD Jul 17, 2026
17.09% operating margin is respectable but not wide. ROIC at 10.54%. Suggests the business covers its cost of capital, but doesn't point to a wide moat.
Revenue grew 14.2%, still solid.
At 35x earnings, the current multiple leaves limited room for execution misses or growth deceleration. Net debt of $24.28B represents 8.6x FCF, leverage limits flexibility.
34.6x earnings, 29.4x FCF. Not cheap, the quality is already reflected in the price. Upside from here requires either margin expansion or growth re-acceleration, not just continuation.
Based on TTM earnings · Diluted shares
Profitability & Returns
Revenue (TTM)
$25.41B
▲ +14.2% YoY
Net Income (TTM)
$2.79B
▼ -1.4% YoY
Op. Margin
17.35%
▼ -1.3pp YoY
ROIC
11.01%
▼ -1.1pp YoY
Cash Flow & Balance Sheet
FCF (TTM)
$3.29B
▲ +30.4% YoY
Op. Cash Flow (TTM)
$6.34B
▲ +12.1% YoY
Net Debt
$22.73B
Cash & Equiv.
$158M
5Y CAGR: +10.6%
5Y CAGR: +9.1%
Continue Research
At a P/E of 34.6 and a price-to-free-cash-flow of 29.4, Waste Management (WM) trades above a two-stage DCF intrinsic value of about $139.21 per share, so at $239.31 the stock looks overvalued (41.8% above estimated intrinsic value). A high multiple is not the same as overvalued: fast-growing, high-quality businesses can deserve a premium. See the general approach in how to tell if a stock is overvalued.
On quality, Waste Management scores 65/100 on Intrinsiqq's quality scorecard (a solid business on these measures), weighing growth, margins, returns on capital, share count, and balance-sheet strength. It currently yields about 1.4%; see dividend safety for coverage and history. All figures are computed from SEC filings; read the full methodology. This is analysis, not investment advice.
Intrinsiqq's two-stage DCF estimates an intrinsic value of about $139.21 per share for WM, projecting its recent free cash flow forward with a growth rate that fades toward a long-run rate and discounting it back to today. Applying a 25% margin of safety gives a more conservative fair-value entry around $104.41. At today's $239.31, that puts the stock about 41.8% above estimated intrinsic value. The result is sensitive to the growth and discount-rate inputs, so it is best to run conservative, base and optimistic cases. You can adjust all of them yourself with the sliders on the DCF tab.
Waste Management scores 65 out of 100 on Intrinsiqq's quality score, a weighted blend of 8 metrics each scored 0 to 100, which makes it a solid business on these measures. Recent fundamentals include a 17.3% operating margin and a 11.0% return on invested capital. The score weighs revenue and free-cash-flow growth, operating margins, return on invested capital, share-count change, and balance-sheet strength, all computed from SEC filings, not opinion. Because valuation only means something relative to quality, the full metric-by-metric breakdown is on the quality scorecard.
Yes, Waste Management pays a regular dividend of about $3.42 per share per year (typically in quarterly installments), a yield of roughly 1.4% at the current price. That is a payout ratio of about 49.5% of earnings, so the dividend is well covered. Waste Management has grown the dividend at roughly 8.3% a year over the past few years. A low headline yield is not the same as a weak dividend: what matters is how well earnings and free cash flow cover the payout and whether it is growing, not the percentage alone. For WM's full payout history, growth streak and dividend-safety score, see the dividends tab.
That depends on valuation and quality together, not either alone. WM currently trades above its estimated intrinsic value and scores 65/100 on quality (solid). It also yields about 1.4%. A cheap price is only a bargain if the business is durable, and a premium can be justified by genuine quality, so the two questions, "is it cheap?" and "is it good?", only make sense side by side. Read the valuation against the quality scorecard, run the DCF on your own assumptions, and decide for yourself. This is analysis from SEC filings, not investment advice.