Services Sector Ideas

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>>> Waste Management Inc (WM) Reports Strong Q4 and Full-Year 2023 Earnings


GuruFocus Research

Feb 13, 2024


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/waste-management-inc-wm-reports-113530156.html


Revenue Growth: Q4 revenue increased to $5.217 billion, up from $4.935 billion in Q4 2022.

Income from Operations: Full-year income from operations rose to $3.575 billion from $3.365 billion in the previous year.

Net Income: WM reported a net income of $493 million in Q4, compared to $499 million in the same quarter last year.

Diluted EPS: Diluted earnings per share (EPS) for the year stood at $5.66, up from $5.39 in 2022.

Operating EBITDA Margin: Q4 saw an adjusted operating EBITDA margin of 29.9%, a significant improvement from 27.5% in Q4 2022.

Free Cash Flow: WM generated strong cash from operations, contributing to robust full-year cash flow.

Sustainability Investments: WM continues to invest in renewable natural gas projects and recycling assets, with significant projected EBITDA contributions by 2026.


On February 13, 2024, Waste Management Inc (NYSE:WM) released its 8-K filing, detailing its financial performance for the fourth quarter and full-year 2023. WM, the largest integrated provider of traditional solid waste services in the United States, operates 259 active landfills and about 337 transfer stations, serving various end markets and leading North America in recycling efforts.

WM's fourth-quarter results showcased accelerated earnings growth, attributed to effective price programs and cost optimization strategies. The company's full-year operating EBITDA reflected growth due to these operational efficiencies. Despite facing challenges such as inflationary pressures and the need for continuous investment in sustainability, WM's strategic focus on pricing discipline and operational excellence has paid off, leading to a robust financial position.

Financial Highlights and Analysis

WM's revenue for the fourth quarter of 2023 was $5.217 billion, a 5.7% increase from $4.935 billion in the same period last year. Full-year revenue also saw an increase, reaching $20.426 billion, up from $19.698 billion in 2022. This growth reflects WM's ability to effectively manage its pricing strategies and maintain revenue growth despite economic uncertainties.

Income from operations for the year was $3.575 billion, a 6.2% increase from the previous year's $3.365 billion. This improvement indicates WM's success in enhancing its operational efficiency and controlling costs. The company's net income for the fourth quarter was slightly lower at $493 million compared to $499 million in Q4 2022, but the full-year net income increased to $2.304 billion from $2.238 billion.

Diluted EPS for the year improved to $5.66, up from $5.39 in 2022. The adjusted operating EBITDA margin for the fourth quarter expanded significantly to 29.9%, demonstrating WM's ability to optimize margins through its operational excellence programs.

WM's focus on sustainability growth is evident in its investments in renewable natural gas projects and recycling assets. These investments are expected to contribute significantly to the company's EBITDA by the end of 2026, reflecting WM's commitment to creating economic and environmental value.

WM's President and CEO, Jim Fish, emphasized the company's strong performance and the momentum built in the second half of 2023, positioning WM for sustained growth in 2024. Fish also highlighted the company's capital allocation priorities, including investments in sustainability growth, accretive acquisitions, and returning cash to shareholders.

Our operating and financial results in the second half of 2023 surpassed expectations driven by strong execution on our pricing and operating excellence programs," said Jim Fish, WMs President and Chief Executive Officer.

WM's financial tables reveal a company that is not only growing its top line but also improving its profitability and cash flow generation. The company's balance sheet remains solid, with a healthy cash position and a manageable level of debt.

In conclusion, WM's earnings report reflects a company that is successfully navigating the complexities of the waste management industry, leveraging its scale and operational expertise to deliver strong financial results. The company's strategic investments in sustainability initiatives are expected to contribute to its growth trajectory, making it an attractive proposition for value investors.

For more detailed information on WM's earnings, including financial tables and key metrics, investors are encouraged to review the full 8-K filing.

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Thomson Reuters - >>> Blue-Chip Stocks to Buy and Hold Forever: January 2024


Investor Place

by Joel Baglole

January 25, 2024


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/3-blue-chip-stocks-buy-223000190.html


Thomson Reuters (TRI)

It’s a challenging time for media companies, especially newspapers. The industry is awash in layoffs and red ink. Yet Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) continues to buck the trend and its stock is now trading near an all-time high. The company’s bread-and-butter continues to be its international newswire, which media outlets are relying on more than ever as they cut back their own newsrooms. However, Thomson Reuters continues to make strategic investments in new areas, including artificial intelligence (AI).

Most recently, Thomson Reuters has increased an offer it made to buy Swedish tax preparation firm Pagero by 25% to $789 million. Thomson Reuters already controls 54% of Pagero and is seeking to gain 100% control of the company, which it hopes to add to its other accounting services that include digital firms such as Checkpoint. Thomson Reuters has a strategy to grow through mergers and acquisitions and has a $10 billion M&A budget through 2025.

TRI stock has gained 22% in the last 12 months and is up 181% over five years.

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>>> Republic Services, Inc. (RSG)


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/10-best-mario-gabelli-stocks-163023754.html


Number of Billionaire Investors In Q3 2023: 14

Republic Services, Inc. (NYSE:RSG) is a waste management company with hundreds of collection points all over America. Trash is king, it seems, as the firm has beaten analyst EPS estimates in all four of its latest quarters and consecutively sequentially grown its EPS in all of them.

After digging through 910 hedge funds for their Q3 2023 holdings, Insider Monkey found 37 Republic Services, Inc. (NYSE:RSG) investors. Ian Simm's Impax Asset Management was the biggest investor as it owned $310 million worth of shares.

Honeywell International Inc. (NASDAQ:HON), Lands' End, Inc. (NASDAQ:LE), Republic Services, Inc. (NYSE:RSG), and American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) are some stocks that Mario Gabelli and billionaires can't get enough of.

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>>> Republic Services Polymer Center Opens, Promoting Bottle-to-Bottle Plastics Circularity


PR Newswire

Dec 5, 20233


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/republic-services-polymer-center-opens-130200842.html


First-of-its-kind facility in North America will help meet growing demand for recycled plastics for use in sustainable packaging

PHOENIX, Dec. 5, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Republic Services, Inc. (NYSE: RSG) today marked the opening of its Polymer Center in Las Vegas, the first-of-its-kind facility in North America, enabling greater circularity for plastics and helping meet growing demand for recycled material. The Polymer Center expects to produce more than 100 million pounds of recycled plastics each year for use in sustainable packaging and other applications.

"The Republic Services Polymer Center will supply high-quality, domestically sourced recycled plastic to advance a critical need for more sustainable packaging," said Jon Vander Ark, president and chief executive officer. "As a leader in the environmental services industry, it's our responsibility to challenge every truckload of material we collect. The Polymer Center is another example of our commitment to developing solutions that promote greater circularity and help customers achieve their sustainability goals."

The Polymer Center will process plastic bottles, jugs and containers collected from homes and businesses to produce recycled PET (rPET) flake and color-sorted HDPE and polypropylene ready for use in new sustainable packaging. Until now, the fate of a recycled plastic bottle in the U.S. wasn't a new plastic bottle; instead, it was generally downcycled into fiber for use in carpet or clothing – material that has few options for further recycling. The Polymer Center expects to significantly extend the lifecycle of plastic packaging and help turn plastic bottles into new bottles six to seven times, enabling true circularity.

As brands commit to using more recycled content in their packaging and more states mandate the use of recycled plastic, supply is struggling to meet the growing demand. By 2030, demand for rPET in the U.S. is expected to total 5 billion pounds, while the supply – based on current processes – will only reach about 2.5 billion pounds.1 The Polymer Center can help companies fill this urgent gap now.

The Coca-Cola Company, one of the first customers of the Las Vegas Polymer Center, has committed to use at least 50% recycled material in its packaging by 2030. The Polymer Center is scheduled to supply rPET to Coca-Cola, beginning in January 2024.

Plans for a nationwide network of Polymer Centers are underway, with the second facility expected to open in Indianapolis in late 2024.

About Republic Services

Republic Services, Inc. is a leader in the environmental services industry. Through its subsidiaries, the Company provides customers with the most complete set of products and services, including recycling, solid waste, special waste, hazardous waste and field services. Republic's industry-leading commitments to advance circularity and support decarbonization are helping deliver on its vision to partner with customers to create a more sustainable world.

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>>> Waste Connections, Inc. (WCN) provides non-hazardous waste collection, transfer, disposal, and resource recovery services in the United States and Canada. It offers collection services to residential, commercial, municipal, industrial, and exploration and production (E&P) customers; landfill disposal services; and recycling services for various recyclable materials, including compost, cardboard, mixed paper, plastic containers, glass bottles, and ferrous and aluminum metals. The company also owns and operates transfer stations that receive compact and/or load waste to be transported to landfills or treatment facilities through truck, rail, or barge; and intermodal services for the rail haul movement of cargo and solid waste containers in the Pacific Northwest through a network of intermodal facilities. In addition, it provides E&P waste treatment, recovery, and disposal services for waste resulting from oil and natural gas exploration and production activity, such as drilling fluids, drill cuttings, completion fluids, and flowback water; production wastes and produced water during a well's operating life; contaminated soils that require treatment during site reclamation; and substances, which require clean-up after a spill, reserve pit clean-up, or pipeline rupture. Further, the company offers leasing services to its customers. Waste Connections, Inc. was founded in 1997 and is based in Woodbridge, Canada.

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>>> Why trash hauler Republic Services thinks the U.S. is going green despite the politics: ‘To be environmentally sustainable, it’s got to be economically sustainable’


Fortune

by Phil Wahba

September 8, 2023


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-trash-hauler-republic-services-120000584.html


Jon Vander Ark doesn't mind anyone calling the company he leads, Republic Services, a garbage company. After all, founded in 1996, the company made its name hauling trash and still makes 5 million collections a day. But Vander Ark, CEO since 2021 and a 13-year veteran of Republic Services, has been working to modernize its business model to go after the higher-growth, higher-profit recycling market.

"I've seen us go from a garbage company to a waste company to a waste and recycling company to now an environmental services and sustainability company," says Vander Ark.

Last year, Republic managed 8 million tons of recyclable items, and extracted 2.4 million tons of materials that can have a second life. This strategy has boosted its stock in the last two years and given the company a market cap of $45 billion. What's more, under Vander Ark, Republic has gone after the fast-growing environmental services and consulting business, making a number of acquisitions. Vander Ark's moves raised revenue 20% last year to almost $14 billion.

The CEO says the way for Republic to thrive in this hyper-politicized environment around climate change is to simply be pragmatic about the focus on cost savings and revenue potential as Americans recycle more. For instance, Republic now has a fast-growing business recovering plastic consumer packaging for circularity, a term that refers to components being constantly re-used. It takes thrown away plastics and recycles them to produce high-quality plastic used by consumer packaged goods companies. "We think about circularity and de-carbonization as two fundamental mega-trends," says Vander Ark.

This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.

Fortune: How do we in the U.S. become a less wasteful society? And if we manage to do that, is that bad for business?

It would not hurt business. In fact it helps. We're already seeing that in terms of shrinking solid waste on a per capita basis. Typically a market grows with population, but solid waste is shrinking because we're diverting more and recycling is growing faster to make up the difference. Our aspiration is to accelerate that trend. So we look at every ton that goes into a landfill and challenge ourselves and ask, "How could we take that out and create value with it?" I pay for something to go to a landfill. But if I can recycle it, I get value for it on the other end.

When you look at how far along many European countries are in recycling in contrast to how much Americans throw out as trash, it's tempting to see Americans as lazy. Can recycling really become part of our culture?

We're certainly behind the Europeans. They're a very source-separated environment and things are very clearly separated for plastic, aluminum, glass and paper. That's how the U.S. was originally and recycling rates didn't really move for a period of time. When it did take off is when we moved to single stream, which is to put everything in one big container, which made it easier for people to recycle. But that has complications. You have some people who don't care and they're still putting garbage in and contaminating that load. And then you have at the other end, the wishful recycler who wants that greasy pizza box to be recycled so badly, but it can't be.

It seems like a lot of packaging is wasteful and impedes recycling. What can be done?

Take plastic packaging. Not all plastics are recyclable. So take a clamshell that is used for your take-out chicken rotisserie. It was made with post-consumer recycled content (material made from the items that consumers recycle every day such as aluminum, cardboard boxes, paper, and plastic bottles). But that shell itself is not going to be recycled, it's going to the landfill. So part of the opportunity is to design for recyclability upfront.

What do you make of the current pushback against ESG (environmental, social, and governance) standards for publicly traded companies? Could this hurt your business, or does this ESG emphasis march forward?

"ESG" needs to be unpacked. It's like a pig, a chicken and duck that get lumped together. All different, but all worthy topics. The "E" part of this is here to stay. We think about circularity and de-carbonization as two fundamental mega-trends that whatever the political sentiment, companies are investing billions of dollars in. There's a global consensus there and we see those as tailwinds for our business.

Another CEO recently told me that you can get consumers on board with green initiatives more easily if one doesn't mention climate change, and by emphasizing reducing waste and saving money. Do you agree?

We're not running away from climate change. We get that the world is heating up and humans are a factor in that and we don't hide from that. I would say this: if something's going to be environmentally sustainable, it's got to be economically sustainable. So we don't do things as science projects or for charity. It's our business and we're going to make money and grow.

You have a goal that by 2030, half of your new garbage and recycling trucks will be electric vehicles. That's ambitious but what stops you from going even faster?

Just like a passenger car, if you retrofit a diesel truck, you add too much weight with the batteries and so it becomes economically inefficient. But when you design it from scratch, you take enough weight out so it can run a full 10.5-hour day and 125 miles without having to stop, so you don't lose productivity.

Do you ever get offended by someone calling Republic Services a garbage company despite all the push you've made into recycling and environmental services?

We're not offended by that because people get too easily offended. That's what we called ourselves a decade ago and I've seen us go from a garbage company to a waste company to a waste and recycling company to now an environmental services and sustainability company. And as that's evolved, so has our mindset. We still have landfills and they are going to be with us for a long time, so we don't run from that. But we're way bigger and way more than that now.

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>>> Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ:CTAS)

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/15-best-p-500-stocks-211112359.html

5-Year Average Dividend Growth: 24.2%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 40

Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ:CTAS) is an American business services company that provides a wide range of products and services related to corporate uniforms, workplace safety, and facility services. In the past five years, the company has raised its dividends by 24.2% on average and maintains a 40-year streak of consistent dividend growth. The company's current quarterly dividend stands at $1.35 per share which offers a dividend yield of 1.08%, as of September 11.

Of the 910 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey at the end of Q2 2023, 40 funds owned stakes in Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ:CTAS), up from 39 in the previous quarter. The overall value of these stakes is over $1.36 billion. Among these hedge funds, Impax Asset Management was the company's largest stakeholder in Q2.

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Accenture - >>> In-house lawyers buy into need for change


Financial Times

by Yasmin Lambert

September 22, 2023


https://finance.yahoo.com/m/08a5fbdb-aab4-35bd-ae79-43ffaab07227/in-house-lawyers-buy-into.html


Accenture legal team wins FT award for its work on taking risks with confidence

Over the past year, the in-house legal team at Accenture has rolled out a programme to improve how the consulting firm contracts with many of its clients that number in excess of 9,000 and include government departments and hundreds of the largest companies in the world.

In doing so, team members have changed how they think about risk and their purpose within the business. “Time kills deals,” explains Christina Demetriades, Accenture’s European general counsel.

“Of course, we have to be stewards of the business,” she adds. “But our role is to help our clients be successful and, in that way, help Accenture be successful.”

In any business transformation, changing how people think and behave is difficult. And changing the mindset of lawyers has its own particular challenges. “Ultimately, clients only ever buy services from [Accenture] because they want a project to succeed,” says Demetriades. But “as lawyers and legal professionals generally, we like to see the downsides”.

The FT Innovative Lawyers 2023 in-house legal teams listed in the table have advised their businesses on complex billion-dollar deals — such as the spinout of Haleon from GSK in the largest London listing in more than a decade — helped launch new products, and enabled acquisitions and rapid growth. Others have made operational changes, introduced new technologies, and trained their people in generative AI and sustainability. All are bringing in new ways to engage their teams.

Top 10 in-house legal teams

Winner: Accenture*

Anheuser-Busch InBev
Bupa
Chanel
Diageo
GSK
Iberdrola
Nasdaq
Octopus Energy
World Bank

* Winner of the FT Innovative Lawyers 2023 award for ‘Innovative in-house legal team in Europe’. Other organisations are listed alphabetically

Accenture is the winner of the award for most innovative legal team in Europe for 2023. Its programme to adopt a more client-centred approach to contracting includes bold ideas and has delivered results after its first year.

At Accenture, a ‘buddy’ system provides team members someone to check their thinking with.

Boldness came when the contracting team moved from creating a perfect or “watertight” contract before handing it over to the business for approval to, instead, making pragmatic decisions themselves about the impact and likelihood of risks. The starting point was ensuring that those dealing with contracts felt empowered to take decisions to improve revenue growth, and were not driven by fear of being blamed if something went wrong.

Approval steps were cut out where not essential and a “buddy” system was introduced that provides team members someone to check their thinking with, other than the line manager.

“We then went to the data to see what we could learn about what really goes wrong,” says Demetriades. “And then we [could] look at where we’re spending our time in the contracting process and ask: ‘Are we spending time on the things that actually matter?’”

The GSK legal team features in the top 10 list for leading the spin-off of the company’s consumer healthcare business as Haleon in 2022, and for new approaches to managing contracting. Lawyers worked for three years on hundreds of complex agreements in more than 70 countries to complete the largest demerger in Europe for 20 years.

The people that stayed with GSK?.?.?. were effectively employees of a new company, with a new purpose, strategy and culture

James Ford, GSK

However, GSK’s general counsel James Ford points out that the remaining part of the company also needed a reinvention. “The people that stayed with GSK after the separation from Haleon were effectively employees of a new company, with a new purpose, strategy and culture,” he notes.

For the GSK legal team, this meant recasting itself to support a smaller, more focused pharmaceutical business.

The team established a new global contracting centre in Bangalore, India, and used AI to review and redesign its contract templates. The business now handles more than half its legal contracts without needing support from the legal team.

Iberdrola, the Spanish energy company, has reinvented itself in the 20 years since its general counsel, Santiago Martínez Garrido, has been there.

But the past two years have seen a further acceleration in its ambition to become a world-leading investor in renewable energy, with plans to plough €47bn into areas such as renewables and energy networks between 2023 and the end of 2025.

The legal team has invested in its own operations and expertise to support the business. The company has launched a legal innovation centre and academy that trains lawyers and business colleagues on a range of topics, including legal technology, legal operations, sustainability and innovation.

“We don’t consider the transformation process within the legal services as a one-off,” says Martínez Garrido. “It should be a continued process in order to be aware of and ready for the transformation of the company?.?.?.?and the transformation of technology.”

While Accenture, GSK and Iberdrola are trying to shift culture and develop new skills within teams that number in the hundreds, at the other end of the size spectrum, Octopus Energy also makes the top ten list.

With a central legal team of just four lawyers, general counsel Amanda Gerrity supports the fast-growing business — now the UK’s third-largest energy retailer — with “a mentality where everyone is pragmatic, efficient and does a bit of everything”. And yet the team is unlikely to grow significantly, she says, as AI tools take care of more and more of the work.

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>>> Cintas -- provides companies with uniforms, garments, first aid and safety products, and other ancillary business services. Despite its incredible 39-year run of dividend increases, Cintas has grown its dividend by 24% annually since 2018 and still has a slim payout ratio of 35%.


https://www.fool.com/investing/2023/09/07/4-top-dividend-payers-of-the-sp-500/?source=eptyholnk0000202&utm_source=yahoo-host&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=article


With 1 million of the 16 million North American businesses as clients, the company is a market leader with over 11,000 distribution routes in a highly fragmented industry. Capitalizing on its larger size amid this fragmented market, Cintas has been a masterful serial acquirer, leading to a total return of over 77,000% since its initial public offering (IPO) in 1983.

Over this time, the company has averaged an ROIC of 14%, steadily increasing to 21% over the last few years. This high and rising ROIC highlights Cintas' ability to successfully integrate acquisitions and generate outsize profits over the longer term.

The company's track record of growth in an industry less susceptible to behemoths like Amazon, along with its leadership position, make it a brilliant holding for investors looking for stability. However, the stock trades at a premium valuation of 39 times earnings, so investors may want to build a position on short-term dips using dollar-cost averaging (DCA).

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>>> Thomson Reuters to buy digital content management company Imagen


Reuters

June 28, 2023


https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/thomson-reuters-to-buy-digital-content-management-company-imagen/ar-AA1daiXy?OCID=ansmsnnews11


(Reuters) - Thomson Reuters will buy Imagen, a digital content asset management company, for an undisclosed price, to expand its agency business to new customers, the news and information company said on Wednesday.

Britain-based Imagen, which owns the Screenocean video distribution platform, operates digital content libraries for sports, media and business companies including Premier League soccer and Major League Baseball.

Imagen will become a part of the Reuters News division.

The acquisition is part of a plan to serve more clients as they expand their streaming video businesses. "Our belief is that our agency business needs to evolve to be a tech-enabled content delivery (business)," Reuters President Paul Bascobert said in an interview.

"With the addition of Imagen, clients will have the ability to seamlessly add media asset management services to store, manipulate, permission, distribute and monetize all their visual content," Bascobert added in a prepared statement.

Reuters currently serves agency clients through Reuters Connect, which is a business-to-business content marketplace that licenses Reuters text, images and videos as well as news and content from more than 70 other providers that include the BBC, USA Today and China's CCTV.

The deal is the second announced this week. On Monday, Thomson Reuters said it agreed to buy Casetext, a California-based AI company that helps legal professionals conduct research, analysis and prepare documents using generative AI, for $650 million.

Thomson Reuters has said it has earmarked $10 billion for acquisitions and about $100 million per year in investments in AI capabilities.

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Cintas - >>> Cintas has grown sales and adjusted earnings per share (EPS) in 51 of the last 53 years by providing its 1 million business customers with uniforms, restroom supplies, first aid and safety equipment, safety training, and fire extinguishers.


https://www.fool.com/investing/2023/03/21/history-suggests-these-4-sp-500-stocks-could-soar/?source=eptyholnk0000202&utm_source=yahoo-host&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=article


As wildly unexciting as this sounds, Cintas stock rose 1,000% over the last decade.

Powering this incredible performance is the company's ROIC of 21%, 16th best of the 69 industrial stocks in the S&P 500. Operating in a highly fragmented niche, Cintas uses a strategy of making tuck-in acquisitions to complement its organic growth in the mid to high single digits, delivering results that might be hard to believe.

Across the last decade, the company's sales, net income, and dividends grew annually by 7%, 20%, and 26%, respectively. Cintas has a payout ratio of only 35%, showing that it should easily be able to continue increasing its dividend (currently yielding 1%), just as it has since 1983.

Although the company trades at a premium P/E of 35, it only counts 6% of the total businesses in North America as customers, leaving a massive runway for growth.

Opportunistic investors might want to take advantage of any short-term dips in the share price to build a position in this operations-crucial business over time.

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Copart - >>> Copart earns incredible profits. The company's operating margin in the first half of its fiscal 2023 was almost 37% -- extremely high. However, despite plenty of cash, management has never paid a dividend in its nearly 30 years as a public company, and it hasn't repurchased any shares since 2019. This is because it believes it can put its cash to better use.


https://www.fool.com/investing/2023/02/23/2-recession-proof-growth-stocks-im-loving-now/?source=eptyholnk0000202&utm_source=yahoo-host&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=article


During its fiscal 2022, which ended in July 2022, Copart acquired around 1,200 new acres of land for storing vehicles for its auctions. According to management, the company owns more than 90% of its 16,000 acres, allowing it to execute its plans without taking a third-party landlord into consideration.

Adding new vehicle yards and expanding existing ones helps Copart increase its competitive advantage in the resilient vehicle-auction space. The company's primary customers are insurance companies looking to get rid of loads of damaged vehicles at maximum prices. By having more than 200 locations, and still growing, Copart can handle their heavy volumes. And it has a large base of buyers, pushing bids higher to the satisfaction of insurance companies.

Vehicles can be damaged in accidents or during natural disasters, and these unfortunate events don't take time off during recessions. This isn't to say that Copart's financial results are completely unaffected by macro-economic conditions -- results right now are being affected by abnormally high used car prices. However, this industry always has demand, and Copart is one of the biggest players in the space.

A sensible choice

I don't know when a recession will strike next. But they're regular economic occurrences. That's why having some more recession-proof stocks like Tractor Supply and Copart in your portfolio could make a lot of sense.

However, if I had to pick just one to buy today, I'd choose Tractor Supply over Copart. Trading at around 30 times its earnings, Copart trades at a more expensive valuation than its 10-year average, as the chart below shows. By contrast, Tractor Supply trades in line with its average.

Chart showing Tractor Supply's PE ratio lower than Copart's since 2018.

This suggests that Copart might be a little overvalued right now, and I don't think I'm alone in that belief. Copart's management seems to agree. Consider that management is authorized to repurchase over 81 million shares whenever it sees fit. But it hasn't done so in over three years.

Therefore, for the more value-conscious investor, I'd wait with Copart's management on the sidelines for a better price, whereas Tractor Supply stock appears to already be trading at a fair price today.

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CoStar Group (CSGP) - >>> Washington, D.C.-based CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) is a diversified real estate services company.


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/7-great-growth-stocks-buy-110030242.html


Best known for its public-facing platforms such as ApartmentFinder.com, LoopNet and BizBuySell, the company also provides information and analysis services to the commercial real estate industry.

Sure, given the current situation with commercial real estate, I admit it may seem odd to consider CSGP stock one of the best growth stocks to buy. After all, isn’t commercial real estate facing numerous headwinds right now? Yes, but given its subscription-based revenue model, and the strong need for its services, CoStar could stay resilient, despite the near-term weakness in the industry.

Long-term, with its deep economic moat and other advantages, the company has a strong chance of continuing to grow at an above-average pace. This will enable B-rated CSGP to sustain its high valuation (51.6 times earnings) and climb up to higher prices.

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>>> Instacart is an American company that operates a grocery delivery and pick-up service in the United States and Canada.[5] The company offers its services via a website and mobile app. The service allows customers to order groceries from participating retailers with the shopping being done by a personal shopper.[6]


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instacart


History

2010s

Instacart was founded in 2012 by entrepreneur Apoorva Mehta, a former Amazon.com employee.[7][8][9] Apoorva was born in India and moved with his family to Canada in 2000.[10][11] He studied engineering at the University of Waterloo and graduated in 2008.[12] He was a participant in Y Combinator's Summer 2012 batch, which eventually led to the creation of Instacart.[13] In 2013, Mehta was included on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.[14] Apoorva previously worked at BlackBerry, Qualcomm, and then Amazon as a supply chain engineer, where he developed fulfillment systems to move packages from Amazon's warehouses to customers' homes.[15] He left Amazon in 2010 to attempt to start his own business.[16] Before founding Instacart, Apoorva had tried to start at least 20 other services.[14][7] He tried building an ad network for social gaming companies, and developing a social network specifically for lawyers, among other start-ups.[17]

Instacart originally launched in San Francisco.[18][19][20][21] By April 2015, the firm had about 200 employees. It introduced a new policy around June allowing some shoppers to choose to be part-time employees, starting with Chicago and Boston[22][23] and extending its offer to shoppers in Atlanta, Miami, and Washington, D.C. the following month.[24]

In September 2016, the company announced an expansion to its zone on the north side of Chicago.[25] In October 2016, it announced the expansion of coverage areas in Orange County, California,[26] and Minneapolis.[27] In November 2016, the company changed its policy and removed the option to leave a gratuity in exchange for a service fee that would be used to pay workers instead. Backlash against the policy from customers and some shoppers forced the company to reinstate the option only weeks later with modifications that placed the tip under the service fee section on a separate page.[28][29]

In March 2017, Instacart agreed to pay $4.6 million to settle a class action settlement stemming from the alleged misclassification of its personal shoppers as independent contractors. The suit, filed in March 2015, alleged 18 violations, including improper tip pooling and failure to reimburse workers for business expenses.[30][31] The same year, Instacart raised $400 million in funding at a valuation of $3.4 billion.[32][33] In November 2017, the company expanded to Canada by announcing a partnership with Loblaw Companies to begin delivery from select locations in Toronto and Vancouver.[34][35] That same month, some Instacart workers participated in a strike action, alleging wages as low as $1 an hour. Instacart claimed that the strike had no impact on its operations.[36]

In January 2018, the company acquired Toronto-based Unata, a white-label platform for grocers, for $65 million.[37][38][39] In February 2018, Instacart withheld tips given by customers to shoppers, blaming a software bug. In addition, customers were often charged for service fees that were supposed to be waived.[40] In April 2018, Instacart made a few additional changes to its pay service by instituting a mandatory 5% service fee on all orders. It originally offered an optional 10% service fee that went directly to Instacart that could be turned off. It also returned the gratuity option back to the checkout screen and raised the default value from 0% to 5%.[41] By mid-2018, Instacart was available for use in 11 Canadian markets and was planning expansions for five more markets.[42] Later in 2018, the company raised $200 million at a $4.2 billion valuation in a funding round led by Coatue Management, as well as Glade Brook Capital Partners and existing investors.[43] In October 2018, Instacart raised another $600 million at a $7.6 billion valuation in a funding round led by hedge fund D1 Capital Partners.[44] In the fall of 2018, Instacart announced national expansions with retailers, including Walmart Canada stores, Staples Canada, M&M Food Market,[45] Kroger, Aldi, Sam's Club, Publix, and Costco.[46][47] In November 2018, Instacart announced the national expansion of Instacart Pickup, a grocery click-and-collect service, whereby users pick up their pre-packaged orders at the grocery store.[48] In November and December 2018, Instacart again changed its pay system for its personal shoppers; shoppers claimed this pay system resulted in substantially lower pay and boycotted. Instacart customers complained on social media that their orders were being delayed.[49][50][51] At the end of the year, Instacart raised an additional $271 million from investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Comcast Ventures, Thrive Capital, Coatue Management, and Valiant Capital, bringing its latest round of fundraising to $871 million at a $7.87 billion valuation.[52]

In February 2019, an online organizing campaign, including shoppers, provided examples of payments as low as $0.80 per delivery. The company announced that it would revise its pay system and give back pay to some workers.[53][54] Under the revised pay system, tips were no longer factored into the minimum base wages, which were newly set at $7–$10 for a full-service shopping order (based on delivery market) and $5 for delivery only.[55][56] In March 2019, Instacart expanded its same-day alcohol delivery service in the U.S.[57] On April 11, 2019, the company expanded its services to offering an on-demand option for its workers, in order to allow workers to work more flexible schedules.[58] Effective May 2019, Whole Foods Market ended its partnership with Instacart.[59][60] By the end of December 2019, Instacart's alcohol delivery service included over 30 new partners in more than 20 states and Washington, D.C., such as Albertsons, Aldi, Sam's Club, BJ's Wholesale Club, Sprouts Farmers Market, The Fresh Market, and Total Wine & More.[61][62]

2020s

In February 2020, Instacart employees in Skokie, Illinois voted to unionize. Instacart said it "will honor" the vote, pending certification of the results. In the lead-up to the election, high-level Instacart managers distributed anti-union literature at a Skokie grocery store where some of the unionizing workers pick up groceries for delivery.[63] At the time, about 12,000 of Instacart's 142,000 workers were employees with the option of unionizing.[64]

From mid-March to mid-April 2020, Instacart hired an additional 300,000 workers to meet the surge in demand for grocery deliveries during the COVID-19 pandemic.[65][66] Data from Apptopia demonstrated a 218% increase in daily downloads as social distancing measures increased.[67] Instacart also introduced new services in response to the pandemic, including a contactless delivery option, safety kits and guidelines for shoppers, and new sick leave policies and pay for those affected by COVID-19.[68][69]

Instacart workers threatened to strike on March 27, 2020 due to a lack of COVID-19 safety measures. A group called the Gig Workers Collective called for a nationwide walk-out to be held on March 30. They had been asking Instacart to provide workers with hazard pay and protective gear, amongst other demands.[70] In early April, Instacart began providing safety kits to workers, with complaints describing a complicated process to order and wait for the kits to arrive.[71] In May, workers reported being denied sick leave despite quarantining under the advice of a doctor. Instacart required that workers either get a positive Covid-19 test or be under a mandatory quarantine by a public health agency or other government agency.[72][73] By June, Instacart changed its sick leave rules in an agreement reached by it and D.C. Attorney General, Karl Racine. Under the agreement, Instacart would provide paid leave to workers who were clinically diagnosed with Covid-19 by a doctor or other medical profession along with those who had a household member contract Covid-19. The agreement also provided access for workers to telemedicine services.[74][75]

In May 2020, Instacart began a partnership with Rite Aid, offering its service across 2,400 locations in 18 states.[76] In August 2020, Instacart entered its first partnership with Walmart in the U.S. to offer same-day delivery services. The partnership is a pilot program beginning in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, and Tulsa.[77][78] Additional partnerships in June included C&S Wholesale Grocers and Staples.[79][80]

In October 2020, Instacart raised $200 million at a valuation of $17.7 billion in a financing round led by Valiant Capital and D1 Capital Partners.[81]

On January 14, 2021, Instacart announced a vaccine support stipend to provide financial assistance to company shoppers who choose to get the COVID-19 vaccine.[82][83]

On January 21, 2021, the company planned to lay off nearly 2,000 employees, including all of its employees who had voted to unionize. Instacart said that the layoffs were due to stores increasingly using Instacart to have consumers place orders, but have their own employees fulfill the order instead of Instacart's workforce, reducing reliance on Instacart's in-store shoppers.[84][85][86]

As of its most recent funding round, in March 2021, Instacart raised $265 million at a valuation of $39 billion from existing venture capital investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia and D1 Capital Partners, as well as existing institutional investors like Fidelity and T. Rowe Price.[87] In March 2022, Instacart slashed its valuation by almost 40% to $24 billion.[88]

On July 8, 2021, Instacart announced that it had appointed Board Member Fidji Simo as CEO, while Apoorva Mehta transitioned to Executive Chairman of the Board.[89]

On February 22, 2022, Instacart started to team up with Delta to give clients more ways to earn miles when they link their SkyMiles and Instacart accounts, with special earning bonuses for Instacart+ members.[90][91]

On March 3, 2022, the platform celebrates women's history month by expanding advertising initiative with new $1 million to support Women-Owned Brands.[92]

On March 16, 2022, in partnership with TikTok, Hearst Magazine and Tasty, Instacart launched Shoppable Recipes with new product integrations that allow food creators to make their recipes shoppable on Instacart.[93]

On March 23, Instacart introduced the Instacart Platform, a program with services for retailers. The platform launched with features for advertising, home delivery, and inventory counting.[94][95]

In May 2022, Instacart announced that it had confidentially submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, signalling its intent to go public.[96] Instacart unveiled new partnerships with Canada's top 5 grocers: Metro, Giant Tiger, Galleria Supermarket and more, expanding same-day delivery countrywide.[97]

In June 2022, Instacart+ (formerly Instacart Express) was introduced with new family shopping features, including sharing membership with another family member for free. The membership also allows for shopping-cart collaboration among family members.[98]

In July 2022, Instacart appointed CEO Fidji Simo to succeed Apoorva Mehta as the Board Chair once the company completed its initial public offering.[99] EBT SNAP is now accepted online via the Instacart Platform in 10 additional states- Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Louisiana, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming - with launch partners Albertsons Companies and Sprouts Farmers Market.[100]

In September 2022, Instacart announced it would be acquiring Eversight, an AI pricing platform. [101] [102]

Service model

Orders are fulfilled and delivered by a personal shopper, who picks, packs, and delivers the order within the customer's designated time frame—within one hour or up to five days in advance.[103][104] Customers pay with personal debit or credit cards, Google Pay, Apple Pay and EBT cards.[105] The delivery fee is $3.99 for orders of $35 or more and $7.99 under that amount. Regardless of the cost of the order, there is a 5% service fee with a minimum of $2 owed. Instacart offers a membership service called Instacart+, formerly Instacart Express until June 2022, for a monthly fee of about $9.99 or an annual fee of $99. The membership service waives delivery fees on orders over $35, but customers must still pay the service fee for the shopper. Customers are also requested to leave a gratuity.[106] Retailers participating in Instacart's partnership program set the price of individual items on the Instacart marketplace, which are mostly the same prices as in-store.[107] In addition, customers can pick up their pre-made orders from the store through a separate service.[108] For stores that do not participate in Instacart's partnership program, customers can be charged a markup of about 15%-40% per order with individual items ranging from a negative markup to over 50%.[109][110]

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Waste Management - >>> These 3 Stocks Could Finally Become Buys in a Bear Market


Motley Fool

By Matthew DiLallo, Neha Chamaria, and Reuben Gregg Brewer

May 28, 2022


https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/05/28/these-3-stocks-could-finally-become-buys-in-a-bear/?source=eptyholnk0000202&utm_source=yahoo-host&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=article


I'd love to go dumpster diving for this stock

Matt DiLallo (WM): Investors have been bidding up shares of collections and recycling company WM for several years. The company currently sells for nearly 35 times its earnings and about 15 times its cash flow from operations, both historically high multiples. Because of that, its dividend yield has fallen to its lowest level in years at around 1.5%. That's despite 19 consecutive years of increasing the payout, including a 13% boost last year.

While I love the company -- it has delivered steady growth and consistently returns cash to investors -- I haven't added to my position in years because it's too expensive for my liking. However, I have it on my watch list to buy if a bear market takes it lower. When stocks tanked during the pandemic's early days, WM shares briefly traded at a much more attractive valuation of less than 24 times earnings, under 10 times cash flow from operations, and a dividend yield approaching 2.4%. I missed my chance to add at that time, so I wouldn't mind another opportunity.

In addition to the steady cash flow produced by its collections, disposal, and recycling business, another factor I like about WM is its investments in renewable natural gas (RNG). WM plans to spend $825 million through 2025 to expand its RNG output by 600%. These investments will capture methane produced by its landfills to power its entire fleet and provide 1 million homes with renewable energy. That will save it money, generate incremental income, and reduce carbon emissions.

While there's no guarantee that WM's stock will tumble in a bear market -- shares were recently 7% below their peak despite a nearly 20% decline in the S&P 500 -- it's one stock I'd love to buy if a bear market made it a lot cheaper.

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>>> Accenture Gains on New Guidance, Cloud Driving Record Bookings


Investing.com

March 17, 2022

By Dhirendra Tripathi


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/accenture-gains-guidance-cloud-driving-081030394.html


Investing.com – Accenture (NYSE:ACN) stock jumped 4.5% in premarket trading Thursday as the company raised its annual guidance one more time after grabbing market share in the second quarter.

The company now sees annual revenue rising 24-26% in local currency and profit per share between $10.61-$10.81. At the time of the last revision in December, revenue growth was seen at 19-22% and EPS at $10.32-$10.60.

The company saw record quarterly bookings in both consulting and outsourcing of $10.9 billion and $8.7 billion, respectively, riding on increasing appetite among clients for spending on technology as they pivot to digital. Demand for cloud and security-related services, Accenture’s forte, was strong in the recent quarter through February.

The company’s clients include more than three-quarters of the Fortune Global 500 companies across communications, media, and technology as well as financial services industries.

Geographically, U.S. grew the most, at 26%, followed by Europe at 24%. Growth markets also rose a strong 22%.

Revenue in the second quarter topped $15 billion, rising 24% in U.S. dollars and around $300 million above the top end of the company’s guided range of $14.30 billion-$14.75 billion.

Operating margin was unchanged from last year at 13.7%. Profit per share rose 25% to $2.54, reflecting a mix of higher revenue and lower non-operating expenses.

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>>> Accenture Boosts Revenue Forecast. The Stock Is Rising.


Barron's

By Joe Woelfel

March 17, 2022


https://www.barrons.com/articles/accenture-acn-stock-earnings-revenue-forecast-51647506664?siteid=yhoof2


Accenture shares were rising in premarket trading Thursday after the management consulting company reported fiscal second-quarter earnings that beat Wall Street forecasts and boosted its fiscal-year revenue outlook.

Accenture (ticker: ACN) stock was up 5% to $340.99.

Accenture reported second-quarter earnings of $2.54 a share on revenue of $15.05 billion.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected Accenture to report fiscal second-quarter earnings of $2.37 a share on revenue of $14.65 billion. A year earlier, Accenture earned $2.23 a share on revenue of $12.09 billion.

New bookings in the second quarter were a record $19.6 billion.

The company said it expects fiscal-year revenue to rise 24% to 26%, higher than its previous forecast of up 19% to 22%. It expects earnings of $10.61 to $10.81 a share, an increase of 21% to 23% from adjusted profit in fiscal 2021 of $8.80; Accenture previously expected fiscal 2022 earnings of between $10.32 to $10.60.

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Cintas - >>> 3 Top Stocks to Buy During a Sell-Off


Motley Fool

By Reuben Gregg Brewer -

Mar 17, 2022


https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/03/17/3-top-stocks-to-buy-during-a-sell-off/?source=eptyholnk0000202&utm_source=yahoo-host&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=article


3. Cintas: Uniform performance

Cintas ( CTAS 1.50% ) is the last name on this list. The company focuses on renting uniforms. While that sounds kind of boring, the company has been anything but for investors. Even after a 20% pullback from its recent highs, the stock is still up more than 800% over the past decade.

While you can argue that Cintas is already in a bear market because of that, the 1% dividend yield is still on the lower side of its recent historical range. A yield closer to 1.5% would be much more attractive and could come about in a broader market pullback.

To be fair, Cintas is economically sensitive, given that its customers tend to need fewer uniforms during recessionary periods. But the long-term trend here is for growth, often via acquisition. And a downturn would make it that much easier to find good bolt-on deals. Indeed, with leverage back down after 2017's purchase of G&K Services, Cintas looks like it's ready for another sizable purchase.

So a broader market downturn, perhaps initiated by a recession, might actually be a good thing for Cintas' business. And if you prepare ahead of time, you can take the opportunity to buy at lower prices, confident that management will continue to find new avenues for long-term growth.

Some added confidence here should come from the company's nearly four decades'-long streak of annual dividend increases -- you don't achieve that by accident.

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>>> Service Corporation International (SCI) provides deathcare products and services in the United States and Canada. The company operates through Funeral and Cemetery segments. Its funeral service and cemetery operations comprise funeral service locations, cemeteries, funeral service/cemetery combination locations, crematoria, and other businesses. The company also provides professional services related to funerals and cremations, including the use of funeral facilities and motor vehicles; arranging and directing services; and removal, preparation, embalming, cremation, memorialization, and travel protection, as well as catering services. In addition, it offers funeral merchandise, including burial caskets and related accessories, urns and other cremation receptacles, outer burial containers, flowers, online and video tributes, stationery products, casket and cremation memorialization products, and other ancillary merchandise. Further, the company's cemeteries provide cemetery property interment rights, such as developed lots, lawn crypts, mausoleum spaces, niches, and other cremation memorialization and interment options; and sells cemetery merchandise and services, including memorial markers and bases, outer burial containers, flowers and floral placements, graveside services, merchandise installations, and interments, as well as offers preneed cemetery merchandise and services. Service Corporation International offers its products and services under the Dignity Memorial, Dignity Planning, National Cremation Society, Advantage Funeral and Cremation Services, Funeraria del Angel, Making Everlasting Memories, Neptune Society, and Trident Society brands. As of December 31, 2020, it owned and operated 1,470 funeral service locations; and 483 cemeteries, including 297 funeral service/cemetery combination locations covering 44 states, eight Canadian provinces, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The company was incorporated in 1962 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

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>>> Healthcare Services Group - 3 Absurdly Cheap Healthcare Stocks Long-Term Investors Should Consider Buying Right Now


Everyone loves a discount.


Motley Fool

by Jason Hawthorne, Rachel Warren, And Steve Ditto

Aug 24, 2021


https://www.fool.com/investing/2021/08/24/have-500-3-absurdly-cheap-healthcare-stocks-long-t/?source=eptyholnk0000202&utm_source=yahoo-host&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=article


Healthcare Services Group : Not every company in the healthcare industry is exciting. Far from the boom or bust world of biotechnology and the innovation of robotic surgeries and gene sequencing is Healthcare Services Group. The company provides laundry and linen services, facility maintenance, and dietary services to healthcare facilities. It serves customers from hospitals to retirement complexes. Housekeeping contributes a little more than half of the company's revenue. But business hasn't been great.

Overall, revenue fell 4.4% in 2020. The decline was due to COVID-19 -- both directly and indirectly. The stock has been beaten up over the last few years, falling 52% since the beginning of 2018. Management expects growth to return beginning next quarter. But investors aren't counting their chickens before they hatch. When Wall Street looks at the company it sees two black eyes that keep the negative sentiment in place, and it has pushed the stock to near its lowest price-to-sales ratio in a decade.

Perhaps the biggest mark against the company is an ongoing investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission into how it calculated its earnings per share for years. The company received a subpoena in November 2017, but didn't disclose it until March the following year. The company's own internal audit was completed a year after that. Management has said it has been discussing a final resolution to the issue with the agency.

Another concern is its dependence on its largest customer -- a struggling operator of skilled nursing facilities. In the past three years beginning in 2018, that account represented 19.3%, 15.6%, and 14.7% of Healthcare Services' revenue, respectively. In the recently reported second quarter, Healthcare Services Group modified its agreement with the customer. The amended contract reduced revenue but helps keep the customer afloat as it restructures.

On the positive side, Healthcare Services Group offers a steady dividend. The stock currently yields 3.3%. Management has raised the distribution for 72 consecutive quarters. The increases aren't large, but the consistency is nice. What began as a $0.01 payout in the third quarter of 2003 is now almost $0.21 per share. Overall, the dividend has climbed nearly 14% over the past five years.

Investors picking up shares today aren't likely to get rich anytime soon. But Healthcare Services Group is one of the cheapest healthcare stocks in the market. If it can manage through the current uncertainty, it should offer a healthy return for shareholders who can stomach the risk.

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>>> Republic Services Raises Full-Year Guidance Again as Second-Quarter Results Better Than Expected


Morningstar

by Brian Bernard, CFA, CPA

Jul 30, 2021


https://www.morningstar.com/stocks/xnys/rsg/quote


Wide-moat rated Republic Services reported strong second-quarter results as its end markets continue to recover. Revenue increased almost 15% year over year as the firm benefited from strong pricing, a significant rebound in volume, favorable recycled commodity prices, and acquisitions. Core price increased 5.2% during the second quarter, compared with 4.3% last quarter and 4.7% during the year-ago quarter. While volume had an easy prior-year comparison due to the pandemic (second quarter 2020 volume was down over 7%), the 8% year-over-year volume gain during the quarter exceeded management's expectations.

Republic Services' recycling operations contributed 100 basis points to revenue growth as recycled commodity prices increased 68% year over year to $170 per ton. Finally, the company has spent $567 million on acquisitions so far during 2021, which accounted for 200 basis points of revenue growth during the second quarter. Management said the firm has a full acquisition pipeline, and "well over" $600 million is earmarked for acquisitions in 2021. Republic Services' adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 110 basis points to 30.6% primarily due to strong pricing and operating leverage. Favorable recycled commodity prices accounted for 50 basis points of EBITDA margin improvement.

After a strong second quarter performance, management raised its full-year adjusted EPS and free cash flow guidance. Adjusted EPS is expected to range between $4.00 and $4.05 ($3.74-$3.79 previously), and revised adjusted free cash flow guidance is now $1.450 billion-$1.475 billion ($1.350 billion-$1.400 billion previously). After reviewing Republic Services' second-quarter results and revised 2021 outlook, we're maintaining our $85 per share fair value estimate.

Business Description

Republic Services ranks as the second- largest integrated provider of traditional solid waste services in the United States, operating roughly 186 active landfills and more than 200 transfer stations. The company serves residential, commercial, and industrial end markets. It also runs a sizable recycling operation in North America.

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>>> Is Cintas Stock a Smart Reopening Buy?

U.S. workers are getting back to on-site jobs -- and back into those jobs' uniforms. But is this big uniform rental company too optimistically priced?


Motley Fool

by Lee Samaha

Jul 23, 2021


https://www.fool.com/investing/2021/07/23/is-cintas-stock-a-smart-reopening-buy/?source=eptyholnk0000202&utm_source=yahoo-host&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=article


Key Points

The post-pandemic period will open up new growth opportunities for Cintas.

Management's guidance looks conservative in the context of its historical growth rates and the expected boost from the reopening recovery.


Uniform rental and facility services company Cintas (NASDAQ:CTAS) has been a stellar performer over the years, with the stock rising nearly 300% in the last half-decade. The reason comes down to its success in convincing more companies to outsource their uniform provisioning to it, and also convincing them to buy an array of everyday facility servicing products (mops, floor mats, fire protection services, etc.) from it. The company has been a great long-term story, and as the economy reopens, Cintas is surely positioned to benefit. However, the key question potential new investors need to answer is whether the stock is a good value now.

Cintas as a reopening play

The case for Cintas being a reopening investment is simple: As workers return to their jobs in factories, healthcare facilities, foodservice outlets, hospitality industries, etc., revenues from its core uniform rental business will rebound. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has created a heightened interest in cleanliness and healthiness in the workplace. That should benefit Cintas' business of providing and routinely cleaning working uniforms, as well as its facility services segment.

None of the above is in doubt. Indeed, on the recent fiscal 2021 fourth-quarter earnings call, for the period that ended May 31, management guided toward revenue in the range of $7.53 billion to $7.63 billion for its fiscal 2022, which would amount to growth in the range of 5.8% to 7.2%. That's in line with the company's annual organic growth rates of 5% to 7% over the last decade.

Those are also the kind of numbers that gave CEO Todd Schneider the impetus to explain during the earnings call that Cintas' "successful long-term financial formula is organic revenue growth in the mid-to-high single digits, double-digit earnings-per-share growth, significant cash generation."

Frankly, any business that can grow its earnings at a rate above 10% over the long term deserves to be priced like a growth stock, and investors should be willing to pay up for it in terms of valuation. In addition, management's guidance assumes that sales of personal protection equipment (PPE) won't maintain their fiscal 2021 levels, on the basis that the pandemic is easing. However, Schneider did say that Cintas' revenue growth would be above 8% if PPE sales did match those levels again -- a wild card for investors to look out for.

Two flies in the ointment

The two caveats regarding Cintas' stock are arguably conjoined. First, the fact that its revenue guidance is only for growth within its long-term average range is somewhat disappointing. There's an argument to be made that fiscal 2022 should be a year of above-trend growth. As the economy reopens, workers get back on site, and uniforms get used, Cintas should see strong growth in uniform rentals. Moreover, comparisons with fiscal 2021 should set a relatively low bar to measure growth against.

For reference, the core uniform rental segment (half of which is uniform rentals) saw revenue decline in the first three quarters of fiscal 2021. It's very hard to know exactly what the PPE-related sales will be, but management only forecasts 8% plus growth if PPE-related sales stay at the highly elevated levels of fiscal 2021. That seems to imply uniform rental business sales might not trump the easy comparisons with fiscal 2021 as much as might be expected.

Some Wall Street analysts responded to the company's latest report by upgrading their price targets for the stock and suggesting that the relatively weak-looking guidance was a reflection of conservatism on the part of management. Time will tell if those analysts are right or not.

Second, the company's earnings and guidance must, as ever, be looked at in the context of its valuation -- in this case, its enterprise value (market cap plus net debt) to earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) -- a commonly used valuation metric.

As you can see below, Cintas trades at an EV-to-forward-EBITDA ratio of 22.5. Moreover, based on Wall Street estimates, its EV is 20.7 times its estimated fiscal 2023 EBITDA. These valuations look expensive compared to the stock's historic levels. Moreover, it's worth noting that these calculations are based on analyst estimates that forecast Cintas growing revenue at an average annual rate of 7.4% over the next two fiscal years -- above the high end of management's guidance for 2022.

Is Cintas a reopening stock?

The answer is an emphatic "yes," but that doesn't make the stock a buy at its current valuation. It looks like Cintas will need to beat its own guidance and Wall Street estimates to make the stock look a good value. There's a theory that in the post-pandemic environment, companies will find outsourcing their uniform provisioning to be a more compelling choice than it was before. That bullish investment thesis for Cintas will have to prove accurate for the company to outperform the analysts' forecasts.

Furthermore, around half of Cintas' uniform rental segment revenue actually comes from facility services like "dust" (mats, mops, etc.), hygiene products (soap, air fresheners, etc.), and linens. The company could also grow sales of these complimentary products as it expands its customer base.

All told, shareholders will have to hope Cintas can, indeed, beat guidance and estimates, because its stock is not looking a great value right now.

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Fiserv - >>> 3 Nasdaq 100 Stocks That Are Best Buys Now
The tech-oriented Nasdaq exchange offers lots of opportunities. These three stocks are the best.


Motley Fool

by Rich Duprey

Aug 23, 2021


https://www.fool.com/investing/2021/08/23/3-nasdaq-100-stocks-best-buys-now/?source=eptyholnk0000202&utm_source=yahoo-host&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=article


Fiserv

Payments and financial services technology provider Fiserv (NASDAQ:FISV) has a three-pronged approach to facilitating cashless transactions that ought to benefit from the post-pandemic economic recovery.

It offers businesses of any size the opportunity to meet their customers however they shop. Its Carat technology lets large merchants adopt an omnichannel approach to commerce while the Clover platform was built for small- and medium-sized companies to accept and process payments whether in store or online.

Fiserv also offers digital payments processing, fraud protection, and credit and debit cards to financial institutions, while also allowing them to manage customer deposit and loan accounts. It also provides them with financial and risk management services.

The growth in cryptocurrencies also presents a unique opportunity for Fiserv. Over the past year it moved $4 billion worth of payments volume in and out of crypto wallets, but moved $2 billion in the second quarter alone, indicating the swift increase cryptocurrencies are experiencing.

Recessions can wreak havoc on a financial services company like Fiserv, as last year showed. The decline in global economic activity resulted in a significant decrease in payment volumes and transactions, so there will be periods when its business slumps. The benefit for investors is that economy-expanding bull markets tend to last a lot longer than bear markets, and as demand for digital financial services increases, Fiserv should see its own business ramp up for years to come.

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Waste Connections - >>> An underrated multibagger stock


Motley Fool

May 1, 20121


https://www.fool.com/investing/2021/05/01/3-top-stocks-you-can-buy-and-hold-for-the-next-dec/?source=eptyholnk0000202&utm_source=yahoo-host&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=article


Would you expect a stock in a typically defensive, slow-growth sector like utilities to more than quintuple in one decade? Waste Connections (NYSE:WCN) has silently made millionaires out of patient investors, and there's every chance you could become one too if you can buy and forget this stock.

But before that, you may ask: It's easy to understand that a company that collects and disposes of waste has a steady, recession-proof business, but what's going to drive its growth? You see, Waste Connections has a couple of things going for it.

First, it relies on exclusive service-provider agreements and acquisitions in new markets, particularly the low-penetrated secondary and rural markets, to expand its landfills and customer base. This strategy has proven hugely successful so far. The company made 21 acquisitions each in 2019 and 2020. Second, Waste Connections' subsidiary R360 is a key waste management player in the oil and gas sector, having operations in major shale plays like the Bakken, Permian, and Eagle Ford basins.

Waste Connections expects revenue to grow 6.5% in 2021, but that doesn't account for potential acquisitions. Also, another double-digit dividend increase is in the cards -- the company has increased dividends every year for 10 consecutive years. That should add to the stock's appeal, making Waste Connections a great stock to own for the long haul.

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>>> Service Corporation International (SCI) provides deathcare products and services in the United States and Canada. The company operates through Funeral and Cemetery segments. Its funeral service and cemetery operations comprise funeral service locations, cemeteries, funeral service/cemetery combination locations, crematoria, and other businesses. The company also provides professional services relating to funerals and cremations, including the use of funeral facilities and motor vehicles; arranging and directing services; and removal, preparation, embalming, cremation, memorialization, and travel protection, as well as catering services. In addition, it offers funeral merchandise, including burial caskets and related accessories, urns and other cremation receptacles, outer burial containers, flowers, online and video tributes, stationery products, casket and cremation memorialization products, and other ancillary merchandise. Further, the company's cemeteries provide cemetery property interment rights, such as developed lots, lawn crypts, mausoleum spaces, niches, and other cremation memorialization and interment options; and sells cemetery merchandise and services, including memorial markers and bases, outer burial containers, flowers and floral placements, graveside services, merchandise installations, and interments, as well as offers preneed cemetery merchandise and services. Service Corporation International offers its products and services under the Dignity Memorial, Dignity Planning, National Cremation Society, Advantage Funeral and Cremation Services, Funeraria del Angel, Making Everlasting Memories, Neptune Society, and Trident Society brands. As of December 31, 2019, it owned and operated 1,471 funeral service locations; and 482 cemeteries, including 290 funeral service/cemetery combination locations covering 44 states, 8 Canadian provinces, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The company was founded in 1962 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

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>>> Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP) provides cloud-based human capital management solutions worldwide. It operates through two segments, Employer Services and Professional Employer Organization (PEO). The Employer Services segment offers strategic, cloud-based platforms, and human resources (HR) outsourcing solutions. Its offerings include payroll, benefits administration, talent management, HR management, workforce management, insurance, retirement, and compliance services. The PEO Services segment provides HR outsourcing solutions to small and mid-sized businesses through a co-employment model. This segment offers benefits package, protection and compliance, talent engagement, comprehensive outsourcing, and recruitment process outsourcing services. The company was founded in 1949 and is headquartered in Roseland, New Jersey.

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Rollins - >>> Pest and termite control services provider Rollins ROL carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), at present. The company’s earnings are expected to be up 6.9% in 2020 and 8.6% in 2021. Estimates for 2020 have moved up 13% in two months’ time.

Rollins is benefiting from aggressive cost-reduction efforts, and routing and scheduling enhancements. The company’s recent cost-reduction efforts included the coronavirus pandemic-induced temporary reduction of upper management‘s salaries, and omission of non-essential travel and capital expenditures.

The company’s business has been deemed as an essential service by the Department of Homeland Security and thus, its brands remain open in every part of the world, where it operates, during such uncertain times.


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/4-top-stocks-recuperating-business-124512949.html


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>>> Carvana Co. (CVNA), together with its subsidiaries, operates an e-commerce platform for buying and selling used cars in the United States. Its platform allows customers to research and identify a vehicle; inspect it using company's 360-degree vehicle imaging technology; obtain financing and warranty coverage; purchase the vehicle; and schedule delivery or pick-up from their desktop or mobile devices. The company was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Tempe, Arizona.

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>>> IAC AND MATCH GROUP (MTCH) COMPLETE FULL SEPARATION


July 1, 2020

https://ir.mtch.com/news-and-events/press-releases/press-release-details/2020/IAC-and-Match-Group-Complete-Full-Separation/default.aspx


NEW YORK and DALLAS, July 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- IAC (NASDAQ: IAC) and Match Group (NASDAQ: MTCH) today announced the successful completion of the separation of Match Group from the remaining businesses of IAC. As a result of the separation, Match Group's dual class voting structure has been eliminated and the interest in Match Group formerly held by IAC is now held directly by IAC's shareholders. Starting today, "new" IAC will trade under the symbol "IAC" and "new" Match Group under the symbol "MTCH."

In the quarter century since Barry Diller took the helm of IAC—then a collection of television stations called Silver King Communications worth $250 million—the company has grown into 10 separate publicly-traded businesses, including Match Group. IAC and its progeny are collectively worth nearly $60 billion today.

The transaction allows a smaller, more nimble IAC to shape a new generation of category leaders—from both the seeds existing within IAC's portfolio and the pursuit of entirely new opportunities.

Match Group's combination of category leadership, growth, and cash flow is virtually unrivaled; as a standalone company Match Group now benefits from increased strategic flexibility, enhanced trading liquidity and the eligibility for index inclusion. With a market cap of $30 billion, Match Group is the largest business IAC has separated in its 25-year history. Since Match Group's initial public offering in 2015, the company has more than doubled subscribers and revenue. Match Group's flagship product, Tinder, is the highest grossing non-gaming app worldwide, with a global presence.

"This is just the largest transaction at the core of our strategy throughout these 25 years," said Barry Diller, Chairman and Senior Executive of IAC. "Be opportunistic, be balance sheet conservative, build up enterprises and when they deserve independence let them have it. Be a conglomerate and an anti-conglomerate, a business model that has been unique to us."

"Back to work again," said Joey Levin, CEO of IAC and Executive Chairman of Match Group, "this is the fun part."

Said Match Group CEO Shar Dubey, "This is a momentous occasion for Match Group, as we are the largest IAC success story to date. Our team is phenomenal, and we are ready to continue growing our businesses, investing in new bets, and expanding our footprint in new markets. We have a proven track record here, and we look forward to taking it to the next level."

As of today, IAC and Match Group each stand on their own as distinct and thriving companies, both well positioned for future growth and organized to continue building.

Details

Upon close of the transaction, IAC shareholders received one share of "new" IAC common stock and 2.1584 shares of "new" Match Group common stock for each share of IAC common stock held immediately prior to the transaction. In addition, IAC received $838 million of cash representing $3 per share of Match Group common stock previously held by IAC and the aggregate cash consideration not elected by Match Group public shareholders. IAC expects to receive an additional $1.4 billion in proceeds from the sale of shares of New Match common stock, which is expected to close later today.

Pre-transaction shareholders of Match Group (other than IAC) received one share of "new" Match Group common stock plus either (i) $3.00 per share in cash or (ii) 0.0337 of a share of "new" Match Group common stock worth $3.00, based on a Match Group stock price of $88.9466 calculated in accordance with the transaction agreement, for each share of Match Group common stock held immediately prior to the transaction.

About IAC

IAC (NASDAQ: IAC) builds companies. We are guided by curiosity, a questioning of the status quo, and a desire to invent or acquire new products and brands. From the single seed that started as IAC over two decades ago have emerged 10 public companies and generations of exceptional leaders. We will always evolve, but our basic principles of financially-disciplined opportunism will never change. IAC today operates Vimeo, Dotdash and Care.com, among many others, and also has majority ownership ANGI Homeservices, which includes HomeAdvisor, Angie's List and Handy. The Company is headquartered in New York City and has business operations and satellite offices worldwide.

About Match Group

Match Group (NASDAQ: MTCH), through its portfolio companies, is a leading provider of dating products available globally. Our portfolio of brands includes Tinder®, Match®, Meetic®, OkCupid®, Hinge®, Pairs™, PlentyOfFish®, and OurTime®, as well as a number of other brands, each designed to increase our users' likelihood of finding a meaningful connection. Through our portfolio companies and their trusted brands, we provide tailored products to meet the varying preferences of our users. Our products are available in over 40 languages to users all over the world.

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>>> IAC/InterActiveCorp (IAC) operates as a media and internet company worldwide. It operates various platforms, such as Ask.com that empowers people to find, learn, and explore answers from any device or location; Bluecrew, an on-demand platform for flexible W-2 work job seekers for sustainable and reliable employment that fits their schedules across a range of industries, including warehousing, logistics, e-commerce, events, delivery, and hospitality; Care.com, a leading platform for finding and managing family care; and Dotdash that help people to find answers and solve problems. The company also operates Newco, a platform for entrepreneurs to build business; NurseFly, a marketplace for healthcare staffing that empowers nurses and healthcare professionals by giving them access to transparent and accurate information to aid in their job search; The Daily Beast, which provides opinion and independent take on politics, world news, pop culture, and entertainment; Vimeo, a professional video platform and community; and a marketplace for home services. In addition, it distributes desktop applications, browser extensions, and PC optimization software. The company was formerly known as IAC HOLDINGS, INC. IAC/InterActiveCorp is headquartered in New York, New York.

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>>> Ecolab Synergex™ Sanitizer & Disinfectant First to Receive U.S. EPA Biofilm Claim


Business Wire

August 18, 2020


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ecolab-synergex-sanitizer-disinfectant-first-123000773.html


Helping food and beverage manufacturers increase food safety by killing biofilms with a no-rinse option disinfectant and sanitizer

Ecolab‘s Synergex™ Sanitizer & Disinfectant is the first product to receive U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approval for efficacy against biofilms, a complex community of bacteria on food contact surfaces.

According to the EPA, biofilms form when bacteria adhere to environmental surfaces, especially those located in the presence of high moisture. Biofilms typically persist in a matrix containing slimy, glue-like substances which facilitate their attachment to many hard surfaces.1

Although biofilms on food-contact surfaces were an unsolved issue for the food and beverage industry, there was no EPA-approved method to test sanitizer efficacy on biofilms. Ecolab, the global leader in water, hygiene and infection prevention solutions and services, partnered with the EPA to develop the first-ever food-contact biofilm test method.

Ecolab’s Synergex Sanitizer & Disinfectant is an EPA-registered (No. 1677-250) mixed peracetic acid (PAA) based sanitizer and disinfectant that helps food and beverage manufacturers enhance food safety, quality assurance, worker safety and air quality. Synergex Sanitizer & Disinfectant has been developed to kill 99.9999% of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Listeria monocytogenes pathogens in biofilms on hard, non-porous food contact surfaces, at no-rinse concentration level options.

"Biofilms are a leading cause of quality issues for food and beverage manufacturers, and until now, they have been difficult to destroy on food-contact surfaces," said Ann Gent, senior vice president and general manager of Ecolab Food and Beverage in North America. "Biofilms manifest in ways that mask the root cause of sanitation problems. A customer may see increased food spoilage or decreased shelf-life, for undetectable reasons. Synergex will help address the issues that result from biofilms on food-contact surfaces."

"If biofilms are not killed during the cleaning and sanitizing process, bacteria and organisms are given a ‘head start’ to grow, allowing micro levels to exceed the quality threshold sooner in the food production process," said Jesse Hines, technical accounts program leader for Ecolab Food and Beverage. "Biofilms are one of several microorganism challenges that can be handled using Synergex Sanitizer & Disinfectant. The patented formulation of Synergex helps reduce day-to-day variability and promotes quality assurance."

For more information on Synergex Sanitizer & Disinfectant and biofilms, visit www.ecolab.com/biofilms.

About Ecolab

A trusted partner at nearly three million commercial customer locations, Ecolab (NYSE: ECL) is the global leader in water, hygiene and infection prevention solutions and services. With annual sales of $13 billion and more than 45,000 associates, Ecolab delivers comprehensive solutions, data-driven insights and personalized service to advance food safety, maintain clean and safe environments, optimize water and energy use, and improve operational efficiencies and sustainability for customers in the food, healthcare, hospitality and industrial markets in more than 170 countries around the world. www.ecolab.com

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>>> Environmental Services Stocks -


US News

https://money.usnews.com/investing/stocks/environmental-services


The environmental services sector includes companies that offer services to collect and dispose of hazardous and non-hazardous waste. Their services can range from the removal of toxic waste from soil to removing medical waste. Companies in this sector also operate incinerators, waste treatment plants, landfills and sewerage systems.


Sharps Compliance Corp.
SMED

Sharps Compliance Corp. engages in the provision of healthcare waste management services including medical, pharmaceutical, and hazardous. It focuses on developing management solutions for medical waste and unused dispensed medications generated by small and medium quantity generators. The company was founded in November 1992 and is headquartered in Houston, TX.


Evoqua Water Technologies Corp
AQUA

Evoqua Water Technologies Corp. is a holding company, which engages in the provision of water treatment solutions. It operates through the Integrated Solutions and Services and Applied Product Technologies business segments. The Integrated Solutions and Services segment focuses on engaging directly with end users. The Applied Product Technologies segment develops product platforms to be sold primarily through third party channels. The company was founded on October 7, 2013 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA.


Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc.
PESI

Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc. is a nuclear services company which provides nuclear and mixed waste management services. The company operates its business through three segments: Treatment, Services and Medical. The Treatment segment includes nuclear, low-level radioactive, mixed hazardous and non-hazardous waste treatment, processing and disposal services primarily through four uniquely licensed and permitted treatment and storage facilities. The Services segment includes on-site waste management services to commercial and government customers, technical services and nuclear services. The Medical segment includes R&D costs for the new medical isotope production technology from its majority-owned Polish subsidiary, PF Medical. Perma-Fix Environmental Services was founded by Louis F. Centofanti in December 1990 and is headquartered in Atlanta, GA.


Stericycle Inc.
SRCL

Stericycle, Inc. engages in the provision of waste management services. It operates through the following segments: North America RWCS, International RWCS and Domestic CRS. The North America RWCS Segment manages medical and pharmaceutical waste disposal, hazardous wastes, and unused and expired inventory. The International RCS segment includes patient transport services. The Domestic Communication and Related Services segment consists of inbound/outbound communication, automated patient reminders, online scheduling, notifications, product retrievals, product returns, and quality audits. The company was founded in March 1989 and is headquartered in Lake Forest, IL.


Casella Waste Systems, Inc.
CWST

Casella Waste Systems, Inc. is a solid waste services company, which engages in the provision of resource management and services to residential, commercial, municipal and industrial customers, primarily in the areas of solid waste collection, transfer, disposal, recycling and organics services. It operates through the following segments: Eastern Region, Western Region, Recycling and Other segments. The Eastern region segment is vertically integrated, with transfer, landfill, processing and recycling assets serviced by collection operations. The Western region segment also consists of wastesheds in western New York, which includes Ithaca, Elmira, Oneonta, Lowville, Potsdam, Geneva, Auburn, Rochester, Dunkirk, Jamestown and Olean markets. The Recycling segment provides a full range of solid waste services, and larger-scale recycling and commodity brokerage operations. The Other segment offers organic services, ancillary operations, major accounts and industrial services, discontinued operations, and earnings from equity method investees. The company was founded in 1975 and is headquartered in Rutland, VT.


Tetra Tech, Inc.
TTEK

Tetra Tech, Inc. engages in the provision of consulting and engineering services. It operates through the following segments: Government Services Group (GSG); Commercial and International Services Group (CIG); and Remediation and Construction Management (RCM). The GSG segment offers consulting and engineering services primarily to United States government clients such as federal, state and local, and development agencies worldwide. The CIG segment includes infrastructure and related environmental and geotechnical services, testing, engineering, and project management services to commercial and local government clients across Canada. The RCM segment focuses on the results of the wind-down of its non-core construction activities. The company was founded in 1966 and is headquartered in Pasadena, CA.


Waste Connections Inc
WCN

Waste Connections, Inc. engages in the provision of solid waste services. Its services include waste collection, transfer, disposal, treatment and recycling. It also provides non-hazardous exploration and production, waste treatment, recovery and disposal services. The company was founded by Ronald J. Mittelstaedt on September 9, 1997 and is headquartered in Vaughan, Canada.


Republic Services, Inc.
RSG

Republic Services, Inc. engages in the provision of services in the domestic non-hazardous solid waste industry. It provides integrated waste management services, which offers non-hazardous solid waste collection, transfer, recycling, disposal and energy services. The company operates through the following segments: Group 1 and Group 2. The Group 1 segment consists of geographic areas located in western United States. The Group 2 segment consists of geographic areas located in the southeastern and mid-western and the eastern seaboard of the United States. Republic Services was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Phoenix, AZ.


Clean Harbors, Inc.
CLH

Clean Harbors, Inc. engages in the provision of environmental, energy, and industrial services. It operates through the Environmental Services and Safety-Kleen business segments. The Environmental Services segment consists of the technical services; industrial services; field services; and oil, gas, and lodging businesses. The Safety-Kleen segment includes parts washer services, containerized waste services, vac services, used motor oil collection, and sale of base and blended oil products as well as complementary products. The company was founded by Alan S. McKim in 1980 and is headquartered in Norwell, MA.


Waste Management, Inc.
WM

Waste Management, Inc. engages in the provision of waste management environmental services. It operates through the following segments: Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3. The Tier 1 segment comprises of areas in the Southern United States. The Tier 2 segment comprises of areas located in the Midwest and Northeast United States. The Tier 3 segment comprises all remaining areas, including the Northwest and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States and Eastern Canada. The company was founded on September 30, 1987 and is headquartered in Houston, TX.


Advanced Disposal Services Inc
ADSW

Advanced Disposal Services, Inc. offers waste disposal, collection and recycling services for residential, commercial, industrial and construction customers. The firm's services include recycling, residential, commercial, landfils, special waste, and transfer stations. It operates through the following segments: South, East, Midwest, and Corporate. The company was founded in November, 2000 and is headquartered in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL.


Heritage-Crystal Clean Inc
HCCI

Heritage-Crystal Clean, Inc. engages in the provision of parts cleaning and waste management services to the manufacturing and vehicle service sectors. It operates through the Environmental Services, and Oil Business segments. The Environmental Services segment includes parts cleaning, containerized waste management, vacuum truck services, antifreeze recycling activities, and field services. The Oil Business segment comprises of used oil collection, recycled fuel oil sales, used oil re-refining activities, and used oil filter removal and disposal services. The company was founded by Joseph Chalhoub in 1999 and is headquartered in Elgin, IL.


JanOne Inc
JAN

JanOne, Inc. focuses on finding treatments for conditions that cause severe pain and markets drugs with non-addictive pain-relieving properties. It operates through the following segments: Biotechnology, Recycling and Technology. The Recycling segment is a turnkey appliance recycling program. The Biotechnology segment deals in the development of new and innovative solutions for ending the opioid epidemic ranging from digital technologies to educational advocacy. The Technology segment develops technology to enable low cost, location-based products and services. The company was founded by Edward R. Cameron in 1976 and is headquartered in Las Vegas, NV.


Covanta Holding Corporation
CVA

Covanta Holding Corp. engages in the operation and ownership of infrastructure for the conversion of waste to energy, related waste transport and disposal, and other renewable energy production businesses. It operates large-scale Energy-from-Waste and renewable energy projects. The company was founded on April 16, 1992 and is headquartered in Morristown, NJ.


Avalon Holdings Corp.
AWX

Avalon Holdings Corp. engages in the provision of waste management services to industrial, commercial, municipal, and governmental customers. It operates through the Waste Management Services, and Golf and Related Operations segments. The Waste Management Services segment provides waste disposal brokerage and management services, captive landfill management operations, and salt water injection well operations. The Golf and Related Operations segment focuses on the operation and management of golf courses and related country clubs; hotel and its resort amenities; athletic center; and travel agency. The company was founded on April 30, 1998 and is headquartered in Warren, OH.


US Ecology Inc.
ECOL

US Ecology, Inc. engages in the provision of environmental services to commercial and government entities. It operates through the following segments: Environmental Services; Field and Industrial Services; and Corporate. The Environmental Services segment include a range of specialty material management services including transportation, recycling, treatment and disposal of hazardous, non-hazardous, E&P and radioactive waste at company-owned landfill, wastewater, deep-well injection, and other treatment facilities. The Field and Industrial Services segment offers specialty field services and total waste management solutions to commercial and industrial facilities and to government entities through 10-day transfer facilities and at customer sites, both domestic, and international. The Corporates segment comprises corporates selling, general and administrative expenses, legal, accounting, and other items. The company was founded in 1952 and is headquartered in Boise, ID.


Quest Resource Holding Corp
QRHC

Quest Resource Holding Corp. engages in the provision of reuse, recycling, and disposal services. It focuses on the waste streams and recyclables from big box, food chain, and other retailers; automotive repair, maintenance, and tire operations; truck and bus fleet operators; manufacturing plants; multi-family and commercial properties; and construction and demolition projects. The company was founded by Jeffrey I. Rassas in 2007 and is headquartered in The Colony, TX.


Hudson Technologies, Inc.
HDSN

Hudson Technologies, Inc. operates as a refrigerant services company, which provides solutions to recurring problems within the refrigeration industry. Its products and services are used in commercial air conditioning, industrial processing and refrigeration systems, which include refrigerant sales; refrigerant management services consisting primarily of reclamation of refrigerants; and Refrigerant Side services performed at the customer's site to remove moisture, oils and other contaminants. The company also offers predictive and diagnostic services through the Chiller Chemistry and Chill Smart brands. Hudson Technologies was founded by Stephen P. Mandracchia and Kevin J. Zugibe on January 11, 1991 and is headquartered in Pearl River, NY


Vertex Energy Inc
VTNR

Vertex Energy, Inc. engages in the recycle of industrial waste streams and off-specification commercial chemical products. The firm focuses on the recycle of used motor oil and other petroleum by-products. It operates through the following segments: Black Oil, Refining and Marketing and Recovery. The Black Oil segment collects and purchases used motor oil from third-party generators, established network of local and regional collectors and sells used motor oil to customers for use as a feedstock or replacement fuel for industrial burners. The Refining and Marketing segment manages the re-refinement of used motor oil and other petroleum by-products and sells the re-refined products to end customers. The Recovery segment includes a generator solutions company for the proper recovery and management of hydrocarbon streams as well as metals. The company was founded by Benjamin P. Cowart on May 14, 2008 and is headquartered in Houston, TX.more


Charah Solutions Inc
CHRA

Charah Solutions, Inc. is a holding company, which engages in the provision of mission-critical environmental and maintenance services to the power generation industry. It also offers on-site, essential services that enable clients to continue operations and provide necessary electric power to communities nationwide. It operates through the following Environmental Solutions, and Maintenance and Technical Services business segments. The Environmental Solutions segment includes remediation and compliance services. The Maintenance and Technical Services segment includes fossil services and nuclear services. The company was founded by Charles Price on January 30, 2018 and is headquartered in Louisville, KY.

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Here's a sector that should be recession proof - Environmental Services, which includes waste disposal, water and waste water related areas, janitorial and maintenance services, recycling, waste to energy facilities, etc.

These are areas that would fit Peter Lynch's stock selection criteria. In his book 'One Up on Wall Street', Lynch said the duller the company's business the better, and if you can find 'dull and disgusting', that's even better. He was a fan of the waste disposal sector, and this sector should be fairly impervious to recessions, so a good companion ETF to the Utilities and Water related ETFs like XLU, VPU, PHO, etc -


VanEck Vectors Environmental Svcs ETF (EVX)

(Exp - 0.55%, Assets - 37 mil, Yld - 0.44%)


Waste Management -- WM -- 10.84%
Waste Connections - WCN.TO - 10.73%
Republic Services -- RSG -- 10.69%
Steris PLC -- STE -- 10.0%
Casella Waste Systems - CWST - 3.57%
Evoqua Water Technol - AQUA - 3.19%
ABM Industries -- ABM -- 3.17%
Advanced Disposal Svs - ADSW - 3.14%
Covanta Holding Corp -- CVA -- 3.12%
Tetra Tech -- TTEK -- 3.12%

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>>> Republic Services, Inc. (RSG), together with its subsidiaries, provides non-hazardous solid waste collection, transfer, recycling, disposal, and energy services for small-container, large-container, municipal and residential, and energy services customers in the United States and Puerto Rico. The company's collection services include curbside collection of waste for transport to transfer stations, landfills, or recycling processing centers; supply of waste containers; and renting of compactors. It is also involved in the processing and sale of old corrugated containers, old newsprint, aluminum, glass, and other materials; temporary waste and recycling collection services; and provision of landfill services. As of December 31, 2018, the company operated through 349 collection operations, 207 transfer stations, 190 active landfills, 91 recycling processing centers, and 11 salt water disposal wells, as well as 7 treatment, recovery, and disposal facilities in 41 states and Puerto Rico. It also operated 75 landfill gas-to-energy and renewable energy projects and had 129 closed landfills. The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.

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>>> Republic Services (RSG)


https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/10-retirement-stocks-buy-hold-173026891.html


10 Buy-and-Hold Stocks to Own Forever

Yahoo Finance

Dividend Yield: 1.82%


Republic Services (NYSE:RSG) is a bit smaller and likely a lot less well-known than rival Waste Management (NYSE:WM). But in this case, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Republic Services has outgrown its larger competitor in both sales and earnings over the past five years. RSG stock has modestly outperformed WM over the same period as well. Investors appear to believe that will continue, as Republic Services is valued a bit higher than Waste Management, at least based on forward earnings multiples.

Both RSG and WM are solid long-term plays. Contracted revenue and steady demand should support both companies for years to come. There’s room for further acquisitions in a relatively fragmented space. Republic Services gets the nod here due to slightly better growth and more room for margin improvement.

But investors looking for safe, stable growth can’t go wrong with either RSG or WM.

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>>> Cintas Corporation provides corporate identity uniforms and related business services primarily in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. It operates through Uniform Rental and Facility Services and First Aid and Safety Services segments. The company rents and services uniforms and other garments, including flame resistant clothing, mats, mops and shop towels, and other ancillary items; and provides restroom cleaning services and supplies, and carpet and tile cleaning services, as well as sells uniforms directly. It also offers first aid and safety services, and fire protection products and services. The company offers its products and services through its distribution network and local delivery routes, or local representatives to small service and manufacturing companies, as well as major corporations. Cintas Corporation was founded in 1968 and is based in Cincinnati, Ohio.

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Stericycle - >>> Pricing Reset Needles Stericycle's Growth, but Shares Undervalued


Matthew Young, CFA

Dec 19 2018


https://www.morningstar.com/articles/905540/pricing-reset-needles-stericycles-growth-but-share.html



Narrow-moat medical waste industry leader Stericycle (SRCL) has grappled with negative investor sentiment, some of it warranted, for several years. This was driven in large part by the emergence of painful contract concessions in its premium-priced small-quantity, or SQ, waste-generating account base, coupled with guidance shortfalls and lackluster performance in the noncore industrial hazardous waste unit. Importantly, SQ pricing rollbacks are the fruit of a decade of consolidation of small physician practices into large hospital groups with stronger buying power, as well as pushback from existing small independent healthcare customers looking to slash costs against an inflationary backdrop. However, we believe Stericycle's market price is baking in overly pessimistic midcycle revenue and profitability assumptions. Execution risk adds uncertainty to the equation, but pricing headwinds of the current magnitude are probably not permanent, and we expect the flagship regulated med-waste division to gradually rekindle low- to mid-single-digit organic revenue growth. The shares trade more than 40% below our $83 fair value estimate, which we think is a compelling buying opportunity for patient, long-term-minded value investors capable of stomaching heightened volatility in the year ahead.

Stericycle's shares reached a peak near $150 in October 2015 before heading into a multiyear decline, with several big steps down along the way. Selling pressure was initially driven by earnings misses in late 2015 and early 2016 that were in part linked to two large, expensive acquisitions that added complexity to the organization and stretched its resources. Not long after Stericycle bought it in 2014, PSC Environmental (industrial hazardous waste; now the manufacturing and industrial services, or M&I, segment) ran into a pullback in U.S. industrial activity and headwinds among energy end-market customers, and the deal arguably took the company into a less core, more competitive marketplace. Also, although the document destruction services of Shred-it (acquired in 2016) are now enjoying healthy organic growth, the integration faced a rocky start. More important was the emergence of a painful contract repricing phase among the company's premium priced small-quantity waste generator accounts. By mid-2016, management began acknowledging the issue as formerly robust organic growth in the flagship regulated medical waste and compliance services division began to deteriorate. Further guidance shortfalls and concerns about the duration of SQ pricing concessions have continued to weigh on sentiment.

Why Did SQ Contract Concessions Emerge in 2016?

In 2016, Stericycle's core regulated medical waste and compliance division saw the emergence of significant pricing pushback in its most profitable customer base--domestic small-quantity waste generators--and we expect the impact to persist into 2019. Other issues have contributed to the company's notable revenue and margin headwinds over the past two-plus years, including cyclical weakness in the manufacturing and industrial services segment, the need to exit unprofitable patient transfer contracts in the United Kingdom, and most recently, a pullback in major recall projects in the communication solutions division. But SQ contract concessions have been at the forefront and remain one of the most prominent investor concerns, in our view. SQ pricing headwinds aren't new to the story, but they're often misunderstood, and limited disclosure on the customer segmentation front makes it more difficult to discern the impact. This pricing reset has pulled Stericycle's domestic SQ business off its previously robust organic growth trajectory of nearly 8% on average between 2007 and 2015.

Recently acquired hospital-owned SQ customers (blended accounts) are a key pressure point. The U.S. healthcare end-market landscape has shifted over the past decade, with large hospital groups actively acquiring small healthcare practices, especially physicians' offices like general practitioners and cardiologists. In many cases, individual hospitals have rolled up hundreds of these providers into an integrated network of satellite locations. In the past, Stericycle has referred to these recently acquired SQ customers as "blended accounts"--in most cases, they are still SQ waste generators processing the same waste levels as before, with Stericycle stopping at the same location, but with one major caveat: They're no longer independent. They operate under the umbrella of a large hospital group or purchasing organization that enjoys much greater bargaining power than a doctor's office representing itself as a small-business owner. With a large amount of consolidation having already occurred, hospital groups have been moving beyond their initial integration phases in recent years, shifting focus to smaller cost synergies/savings opportunities--including medical waste removal--that were previously a lower priority. As these contracts renew, Stericycle is seeing heavy discounting of about 35% on average. The company doesn't consistently break out specific customer segmentation, but on the basis of past disclosures we've pulled together, we estimate blended SQ accounts make up somewhere around 20% of total SQ revenue.

True SQ customers are also pushing back. In addition to pricing pressure among hospital-owned SQ accounts, Stericycle is grappling with pushback among independent SQ customers, or true SQ accounts, to which it has been conceding discounts near 15% on average as contracts renew. We estimate true SQ accounts (unaffiliated doctors, dentists, veterinary offices, and so on) make up roughly 55% of total domestic SQ revenue; in our view, the onset of rate concessions stems from a few factors. First, independent physician offices have been faced with rapidly rising operating costs and declining reimbursements in recent years (driven in large part by intensifying regulation, including the Affordable Care Act), and small bills like medical waste removal (often under $1,000 annually) that previously fell under the radar are now under scrutiny as providers leave no stone unturned for cost savings. Second, the SQ class-action lawsuit, which settled in 2017 with a $295 million payout funded in July 2018, brought significant attention to Stericycle's pricing practices, prompting true SQ customers to inquire about their bills and push for price cuts--the company has long been the premium-priced provider for SQ customers. The original complaint filed in 2013 alleged the company "imposed unauthorized or excessive price increases and other charges." Management denies wrongdoing, and there was no admission of fault in the settlement. On the positive side, the issue is now in the rearview mirror and any negative publicity should begin to subside in the year ahead.

Putting it all together, we estimate 75% of Stericycle's SQ business (true SQ and blended accounts) is facing a pricing rollback that's proving painful for the flagship regulated medical waste segment. Management reclassified reporting segments in 2016, which makes it tough to make an apples-to-apples comparison of med-waste division organic growth with that of previous years. This is because the segment's quarterly results for 2014 and 2015 reflect domestic-only med-waste operations and industrial hazardous waste business (M&I), while subsequent periods include domestic and international med-waste operations while excluding M&I. Nonetheless, we can see that SQ pricing concessions are the primary driver of the marked organic slowdown by the first quarter of 2016. In short, declines over the past few years compare with a previous run rate in the high single digits. We note that the pullback in 2015 had less to do with SQ pricing concessions and more to do with lower fuel surcharge revenue and slowing industrial hazardous waste activity for the M&I unit due in part to cyclical factors.

The SQ pricing reset is a major headache for Stericycle, but not all med-waste customers are affected. We estimate true SQ and blended SQ accounts together make up a ballpark 26% of total medical waste and compliance division revenue, which in turn constituted 57% of consolidated revenue in 2017. We don't believe Stericycle has been conceding price with customers making up most of the other 74% of med-waste segment revenue, which includes domestic large-quantity, or LQ, waste-generating customers (hospitals), retail/healthcare hazardous waste, and international med-waste. LQ customers already enjoy strong bargaining power that's long yielded more favorable terms than SQ accounts could negotiate. On top of that, waste removal expenses for large hospitals (including high-cost must-incinerate waste) are a much larger and more visible outlay to begin with, often exceeding $35,000 annually. Thus, Stericycle's invoice doesn't fly under the radar screen for LQ accounts as it often does for a small doctor or dentist office that pays less than $1,000 per year. The international med-waste operations have seen intermittent bouts of pricing pressure, particularly with government-owned contracts in Latin America, but do not appear to be facing a broad multiyear repricing problem, and the retail hazardous waste business is growing nicely on the back of strong demand for pharmaceutical disposal services (medication disposal kiosks). Lastly, in the domestic SQ customer segment, national SQ accounts (national chains of individual kidney dialysis clinics, for example) aren't commanding concessions because, like LQ accounts, centralized buying scale already affords bulk discounts.

Broad-Based SQ Repricing Won't Last Forever

We expect the bulk of Stericycle's SQ pricing concessions to abate by the end of 2019. Contracts have an average duration of three to five years, and given Stericycle's immense customer base, this implies that around 25% renew annually and it should take roughly four years to cycle through all contract renegotiations. Thus, having begun in 2016, the impact of pricing concessions of the current magnitude should begin to diminish in 2019. Management has provided guidance in terms of its expected impact, but to get our own sense of how pricing concessions should be playing out (as a check), we ran a revenue analysis that assumes one fourth of true SQ and blended SQ customers renew at a discount each year between 2016 and 2019, using the company's run rate of SQ revenue in 2015 of $750 million, which management disclosed in 2016. We applied renewal price discounting of 15% for true SQ and 35% for blended SQ customers while keeping national SQ pricing stable. National chains of local dialysis clinics, for example, already enjoy bulk discounts. On the basis of management's commentary during the first half of this year, we believe the 15% and 35% discounting levels are still valid.

Our initial revenue analysis, which assumes contracts renew evenly each year, suggests pricing concessions should be reducing Stericycle's organic SQ revenue base by at least 4.0% annually on average between 2016 and 2019, all else equal (ignoring pricing escalators, customer additions, and increased ancillary penetration). That translates into an approximate $115 million cumulative pricing-related loss on the original run rate of existing SQ business in 2015. In fact, our estimate came in below the company's internal forecast provided in 2016, which hasn't materially changed, and since guidance proved more conservative, we've chosen to factor those numbers into our base-case med-waste segment model assumptions. When all is said and done, the company expects $130 million in total SQ pricing concessions through 2019, which implies a 4.5% average annual decline. Management has drilled that down a bit further, estimating SQ pricing-related losses of about $15 million in 2016, $44 million in 2017, $45 million in 2018, and $25 million in 2019. Applying that annual cadence yields SQ revenue declines by year of 2.0%, 6.0%, 6.5%, and 4%, respectively. When baking in the favorable impact of price escalators (which we expect will at minimum approximate inflation, or 1.5%-2.0%), we estimate SQ revenue should be posting organic declines in the ballpark of 1.0%, 5.0%, 5.5%, and 2.5%, respectively, between 2016 and 2019. That's an average of 3.5% annually, ignoring contributions from customer additions or increased penetration of ancillary services, which we don't bake in until 2020 anyway. We already incorporate it, but an annual pricing-related loss of $130 million has roughly a $4 per share negative impact on our fair value estimate, ignoring other losses associated with management distraction or changes in sales strategy.

How does this cadence of expected SQ revenue declines compare with actual results? So far, so good. Our discussions with management lead us to believe pricing concessions have not worsened beyond the company's original expectations, and the numbers appear to back this up. Stericycle doesn't disclose domestic SQ revenue, save for a few one-time disclosures in the past. Thus, to gauge the trajectory of pricing concessions, we are left with having to assess total organic med-waste segment performance, which reflects more than just SQ business, including LQ (hospitals), retail/healthcare hazardous waste, and international med-waste. Along those lines, we calculated what Stericycle's med-waste division organic revenue trends should have looked like between 2016 and the first half of 2018 by weighting what we know to be roughly true about the growth contribution from non-SQ business (derived from management commentary) and layering in our aforementioned approximations for SQ revenue declines thus far (which are not disclosed). We then compared that outcome with actual med-waste segment performance, and it wasn't far off. Overall, the cadence of pricing concessions appears to be roughly tracking our expectations, and that's good news.

Market Price Reflects Overly Pessimistic Midcycle Growth Assumptions
Stericycle’s current price offers upside potential with an attractive uncertainty-adjusted margin of safety. Because of numerous earnings shortfalls over the past few years, Stericycle has morphed into a show-me story in terms of an upside catalyst. Even so, negative investor sentiment looks excessive when we back into the current market price with our discounted cash flow model by adjusting key assumptions. Our analysis suggests the market price is implying only flattish midcycle organic revenue growth with negligible operating margin improvement. Execution risk remains, Stericycle's top line won't return to its former high-single-digit organic growth trajectory, and margins will shake out below the historical run rate (partly because of blended SQ pricing rollbacks), but we think organic top-line growth near 3.5% and EBITDA margins near 26% are achievable against a stable pricing backdrop, with incremental help from upselling ancillary services and efficiency optimization. Ignoring divestitures, we currently forecast 40-50 basis points of average annual growth from acquisitions on top of that.

Switching gears to Stericycle's profitability, it looks to us as if the current market price is baking in scant margin improvement over the long run. We agree that if Stericycle faced a wholesale mix shift of high-margin true SQ accounts to hospital-owned blended SQ accounts, it would see long-term declines in SQ contract pricing and overall med-waste segment sales, which would frustrate margin improvement. In fact, we expect total adjusted EBITDA margin to fall 130 basis points in 2018 (to 21.4%) on the back of lost leverage from current pricing rollbacks. However, we are betting incremental SQ customer mix shifts will be relatively modest in the years ahead. We expect the impact of pricing concessions to dissipate in 2019 and look for med-waste division revenue to return to modest organic growth in 2020, thus driving incremental leverage over fixed network costs.

We are also giving the company some credit for longer-term internal productivity gains stemming from its recently implemented "transformation" initiatives. The company appears to be seeing initial benefits from various optimization efforts (standardizing route logistics, upgrading field IT), and portfolio rationalization (it recently divested hazardous waste services in the U.K.) has the potential to be of help by simplifying the portfolio. But the company expects the bulk of savings to come from its multiyear enterprise resource planning system rollout. We think Stericycle has been successful integrating tuck-in med-waste acquisitions over the years in terms of revenue synergies, but its disparate back-office IT systems, which lack standardization, are long overdue for a makeover. Thus, provided the company doesn't overspend, an ERP upgrade makes sense and should boost visibility (more surgically optimize pricing decisions, for example).

Applying management's cost savings targets to clean 2017 results implies an adjusted EBITDA margin in the ballpark of 28%-29% (stripping out nonrecurring items and transformation costs). Our fair value bakes in a midcycle operating margin near 26% (our 2022 forecast), which compares with 22.7% in 2017 and our ballpark 21% forecast for 2018. Before the onset of SQ pricing declines, between 2011 and 2015, Stericycle's adjusted EBITDA approached 29% on average.

A notable risk to our midcycle profitability assumptions is management execution, especially in terms of overspending or distraction with respect to the broad ERP project. Our discussions with management give us some degree of comfort that the team is cognizant of the common pitfalls associated with ERP implementations and is striving to avoid them (for example, the company has added compliance and auditing head count, including dedicated project teams, to improve internal controls and oversee best practices in the ERP process). Nonetheless, the project's success is by no means a foregone conclusion, which is one reason for our high fair value uncertainty rating.

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>>> Paychex, Inc. provides payroll, human resource (HR), retirement, and insurance services for small to medium-sized businesses in the United States and Europe. The company offers payroll processing services; payroll tax administration services; employee payment services; and regulatory compliance services, such as new-hire reporting and garnishment processing. It also provides HR outsourcing services, including Paychex HR solutions comprising payroll, employer compliance, HR and employee benefits administration, risk management outsourcing, and the on-site availability of a professionally trained HR representative; and retirement services administration, including plan implementation, ongoing compliance with government regulations, employee and employer reporting, participant and employer online access, electronic funds transfer, and other administrative services. In addition, the company offers insurance services for property and casualty coverage, such as workers' compensation, business-owner policies, and commercial auto, as well as health and benefits coverage, including health, dental, vision, and life; cloud-based HR administration software products for employee benefits management and administration, time and attendance, recruiting, and onboarding solutions; and other HR services and products, such as employee handbooks, management manuals, and personnel and required regulatory forms. Further, it provides various accounting and financial services to small to medium-sized businesses comprising payroll funding and outsourcing services, which include payroll processing, invoicing, and tax preparation; and various services, such as payment processing services, financial fitness programs, and a small-business loan resource center. The company markets its products and services through direct sales force. Paychex, Inc. was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Rochester, New York.

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>>> Accenture plc is a professional services company serving clients in various industries and in geographic regions, including North America, Europe and Growth Markets. The Company provides management and technology consulting services. Its segments include Communications, Media and Technology; Financial Services; Health and Public Service; Products, and Resources. The Communications, Media & Technology segment serves communications, electronics, technology, media and entertainment industries. The Financial Services segment serves banking, capital markets and insurance industries. The Health & Public service segment serves healthcare payers and providers, and government departments and agencies, public service organizations, educational institutions and non-profit organizations. The Products segment serves a set of interconnected consumer-relevant industries. The Resources segment serves chemicals, energy, forest products, metals and mining, utilities and related industries. <<<

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>>> Gartner, Inc., an information technology research and advisory company, provides independent research and analysis on the information technology (IT), supply chain, and digital marketing initiatives. It operates through three segments: Research, Consulting, and Events. The Research segment offers objective insight on critical and timely technology and supply chain initiatives for CIOs, other IT professionals, supply chain leaders, marketing and other business professionals, technology and professional services companies, and the institutional investment community through reports, briefings, and proprietary tools, as well as access to analysts, peer networking services, and membership programs. It also provides analysis on various aspects of technology, including hardware, software and systems, services, IT management, market data and forecasts, and vertical-industry issues. This segment delivers its research and insight primarily through a subscription-based digital media service. The Consulting segment offers consulting, measurement engagements, and strategic advisory services, as well as proprietary tools for measuring and improving IT performance. This segment provides solutions to CIOs, IT executives, and other professionals; targeted consulting services to professionals in specific industries; and actionable solutions for IT cost optimization, technology modernization, and IT sourcing optimization initiatives. The Events segment provides IT, supply chain, marketing, and other business professionals the opportunity to attend various symposiums, conferences, and exhibitions to learn, contribute, and network with their peers on technologies and industries. The company has operations in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and internationally. Gartner, Inc. was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. <<<

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>>> Rollins Acquires Safeguard Pest Control



PR Newswire

June 29, 2016



http://finance.yahoo.com/news/rollins-acquires-safeguard-pest-control-114800706.html



ATLANTA, June 29, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Rollins, Inc. (ROL), a premier global consumer and commercial services company, today announced that it has purchased the stock of Safeguard Pest Control and Environmental Services Limited, operating in greater London and Southeastern England. The acquisition closed today and is Rollins' first company-owned operation in the United Kingdom.

Established in 1991 and headquartered in Westersham Kent, United Kingdom, Safeguard is a long established pest control company in the UK, with a rich history of providing superior pest control, bird control, and specialist services to residential and commercial customers. Owners Paul Butterick and Tim Sheehan will stay on to run the company operations.

Gary W. Rollins, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Rollins stated, "The Safeguard acquisition is an important milestone and expands our global presence. Safeguard's outstanding management team has established the company as an industry leader, and we share a culture of continuous improvement and ongoing investment in training and development. Further, we are pleased that Paul and Tim will remain in leadership roles and look forward to sharing best practices between the two organizations."

Rollins, Inc. is a premier global consumer and commercial services company. Through its wholly owned subsidiaries, Orkin LLC., HomeTeam Pest Defense, Orkin Canada, Western Pest Services, Critter Control, Inc., The Industrial Fumigant Company, Trutech LLC., Rollins Australia, Waltham Services LLC., PermaTreat, Rollins UK, and Crane Pest Control, the Company provides essential pest control services and protection against termite damage, rodents and insects to more than two million customers in the United States, Canada, Central America, South America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Asia, the Mediterranean, Europe, Africa, Mexico, and Australia from more than 700 locations.

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>>> Exponent, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a science and engineering consulting company worldwide. It operates in two segments, Engineering and Other Scientific; and Environmental and Health. The Engineering and Other Scientific segment provides services in the areas of biomechanics, biomedical engineering, buildings and structures, civil engineering, construction consulting, electrical engineering and computer science, engineering management consulting, human factors, industrial structures, materials and corrosion engineering, mechanical engineering, polymer science and materials chemistry, statistical and data sciences, technology development, thermal sciences, and vehicle analysis. The Environmental and Health segment offers services in the areas of chemical regulation and food safety, ecological and biological sciences, environmental and earth sciences, occupational and environmental health risk assessment, and toxicology and mechanistic biology, as well as epidemiology, biostatistics, and computational biology. The company offers approximately 90 different technical disciplines to solve complicated issues facing industry and government. It serves clients in automotive, aviation, chemical, construction, consumer products, energy, government, health, insurance, manufacturing, technology, and other sectors. The company was formerly known as The Failure Group, Inc. and changed its name to Exponent, Inc. in 1998. Exponent, Inc. was founded in 1967 and is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. <<<

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>>> Cintas Corporation provides corporate identity uniforms and related business services primarily in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. Its Rental Uniforms and Ancillary Products segment rents and services uniforms and other garments, including flame resistant clothing, mats, mops and shop towels, and other ancillary items; and provides restroom cleaning services and supplies, and carpet and tile cleaning services. The company?s Uniform Direct Sales segment is involved in the direct sale of uniforms and related items. Its First Aid, Safety, and Fire Protection Services segment offers first aid, safety, and fire protection products and services. The company offers its products and services through its distribution network and local delivery routes, or local representatives to small service and manufacturing companies, as well as corporations. Cintas Corporation was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio.

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>>> Core-Mark Holding Company, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, markets fresh and broad-line supply solutions to the convenience retail industry in North America. The company distributes various products, including cigarettes, other tobacco products, candies, snacks, fast food, groceries, fresh products, dairy, bread, beverages, general merchandise, and health and beauty care products, as well as offers marketing programs and technology solutions. The company provides its products to traditional convenience stores, grocery stores, drug stores, liquor stores, cigarette and tobacco shops, hotel gift shops, military exchanges, college and corporate campuses, casinos, movie theaters, hardware stores, airport concessions, and other specialty and small format stores that carry convenience products through a network of 28 distribution centers. Core-Mark Holding Company, Inc. was founded in 1888 and is headquartered in South San Francisco, California. <<<

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>>> Waste Management, Inc. provides waste management environmental services to residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal customers in North America. It offers collection, transfer, recycling and resource recovery, and disposal services. The company also owns, develops, and operates waste-to-energy and landfill gas-to-energy facilities in the United States. Its collection services include picking up and transporting waste and recyclable materials from generated area to a transfer station, material recovery facility, or disposal site; and recycling operations comprise materials processing, plastics materials recycling, and commodities recycling services. In addition, the company provides recycling brokerage services consisting of managing the marketing of recyclable materials for third parties; electronic recycling services, such as collection, sorting, and disassembling of discarded computers, communications equipment, and other electronic equipment; and sustainability services to businesses and organizations, including in-plant services that provide full-service waste management solutions and consulting services at customers? facilities. Further, it is involved in the development, operation, and promotion of landfill gas projects; rental portable restroom facilities to municipalities and commercial customers under the Port-o-Let name; and provision of street and parking lot sweeping services. Additionally, Waste Management, Inc. offers medical waste services; portable self-storage services; and fluorescent lamp recycling services, as well as is involved in the acquisition and development of oil and gas producing properties. The company was formerly known as USA Waste Services, Inc. and changed its name to Waste Management, Inc. in 1998. Waste Management, Inc. was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. <<<

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>>> Rollins, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides pest and termite control services to residential and commercial customers. The company offers its pest control services; and protection services against termite damage, rodents, and insects to homes, as well as to businesses, including hotels, food service establishments, food manufacturers, retailers, and transportation companies. It also provides pest management and sanitation services and products to the food and commodity industries. The company operates in the United States, Canada, Central America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Asia, the Mediterranean, Europe, Africa, and Mexico. Rollins, Inc. was founded in 1948 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. <<<

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>>> Stericycle Faces Charges of Overbilling the Government



Zacks

June 18, 2014


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/stericycle-faces-charges-overbilling-government-172008861.html




Leading waste management company Stericycle, Inc. (SRCL) is being investigated by the law office of Brodsky & Smith, LLC, on potential claims that the company’s management has been systematically overcharging government entities for its services.

On Jan 7, 2013, a 2008 qui tam action against Stericycle was disclosed, alleging that Stericycle methodically implemented automated price increases without giving notice of the same to government entities. A qui tam action is a whistleblower lawsuit filed by a private citizen against an entity believed to have violated a contract with the government.

The action claims that Stericycle programmed its billing system to automatically increase rates by 18% every 9 months, without any relevant cost hike to justify them. The price hike system, beginning in 2003, was designed to evade detection and increase its revenues and violated the terms of its contract with the federal customers.

The whistleblower lawsuit was filed by a former employee of the company, and came to light when New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced a $2.4 million settlement between New York and Stericycle. The settlement was a compensation for overcharging public entities like schools, hospitals, and police and fire departments for waste management services. The state also imposed strict guidelines on the company for future rate hikes.

Now, 14 other states have joined the action, seeking compensation for the amounts that they were improperly charged. This could translate into a financial impact to the tune of tens of millions of dollars for the company. Further, it would significantly impair the company’s reputation and credibility.

The lawsuit also claims that Stericycle’s upper management was aware of and complicit in the illegal scheme. This investigation will seek to verify whether the company’s board of directors violated its fiduciary duties to shareholders and state or federal laws, thereby putting shareholders’ welfare at risk.

Stericycle currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Other companies in the Business Services sector that are worth mentioning include Convergys Corporation (CVG), Deluxe Corp. (DLX) and HNI Corp. (HNI). All these stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

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>>> Mastech Holdings, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides information technology (IT) staffing services to large and medium-sized organizations in the United States. It offers a range of IT staffing services in the areas of business intelligence/data warehousing; service oriented architecture; Web services; enterprise resource planning and customer resource management; and e-Business solutions segments. The company provides IT services for various industry verticals, including automotive, consumer products, education, financial services, government, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, technology, telecommunications, transportation, and utilities. It has strategic relationships with IBM, Oracle, and Accenture. Mastech Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pa <<<

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Waste sector -- >>> No Disappointments In 'Waste Land'




Nov. 12, 2013

Includes: RSG, WCN, WM



http://seekingalpha.com/article/1830602-no-disappointments-in-waste-land?source=yahoo



The US non-hazardous solid-waste services industry generates annual revenue in excess of $50 billion, a staggering number just to keep our streets clean. Waste Management (WM), Republic Services (RSG), and Waste Connections (WCN) dominate this market, generating greater than 60% of industry revenues and controlling an equal percentage of valuable disposal capacity. The top line for the group can be expected to expand at a nominal-GDP rate, with pricing growth in the industry adding an additional tailwind thanks to recent consolidation (Republic Services/Allied Waste), a rational focus on return on invested capital, and cost pressures facing independent mom-and-pop trash companies and municipalities.

Operators generate strong and predictable cash flow. Within the collection line of a waste hauler's business, residential services provided to municipalities and individual households are on a service-based model (not-volume based) and can largely be viewed as insulated from economic pressures. Such a constant revenue stream helps to mitigate cyclical pressures in a trash taker's commercial collection and industrial roll-off lines, which also fall into the overall waste-collection category. Cell-by-cell landfill build-out provides additional flexibility with respect to capital outlays, as haulers can scale back expenditures during troubled economic times.

Year-to-date, Waste Management's third-quarter performance shows free cash flow (cash from operations less capital expenditures) of $1.03 billion, roughly 9.8% of sales, while Republic Services' year-to-date mark of $448.5 million represents 7.1% of sales. Waste Management more effectively converts sales to free cash flow, as capital expenditures (as a percentage of sales) are roughly 3 percentage points lower than those of Republic (7.9% versus 11%). We think Republic's capital requirements will steadily decline in coming years to a high-single-digit mark as percentage of sales once the hefty equipment expenditures of today are completed.

Transfer and disposal is the most lucrative revenue stream in the waste business. Landfill ownership can largely be viewed as the primary competitive advantage for a solid-waste operator. Though anyone that can finance a truck can bid on collection routes (service is undifferentiated), new entrants are at a significant disadvantage for disposal. For starters, building a landfill is expensive, time-consuming (permits can take 3-7 years to obtain, sometimes longer), and NIMBY (not-in-my-backyard) opposition has only increased with suburban sprawl. Subtitle D of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (1991) significantly increased the cost and complexity of landfill ownership (composite liners, leachate collection systems, zoning, etc.). As a result, many landfills in the US have been closed, and disposal airspace should only become more valuable over time.

Since collected waste must go somewhere (direct haul is only practical for 40-50 miles), the company that controls the disposal assets in a given "wasteshed" (locality) often dictates pricing. Owning the only dump in town also limits hefty tipping fees paid to other participants. Waste Management and Republic Services internalize -- dispose of into their own company-owned landfills -- more than 60% of collected waste, bolstering operating margins relative to privately-held, independent operators. Importantly, landfilling still represents the most prominent form of disposal, declining only 3 percentage points (as a percentage of generation) during the last decade. Materials recovery (including recycling) should continue its march upward, but the pace of this trend is far from tragic for the waste-hauling sector.

Waste Management's and Republic Services' third-quarter pricing trends certainly didn't disappoint. The former put up core pricing expansion of 3.9%, while the latter posted an average yield increase of 1.3% for the period. Though these numbers may not seem aggressive, they are quite meaningful across the large revenue bases of the two garbage giants. The commentary of Waste Management's CEO David Steiner regarding ongoing pricing expansion was particularly encouraging:

"In the third quarter, collection and disposal yield was 2.3%, the fifth quarter of sequential improvement, and nearly triple the yield we saw in the third quarter of 2012."

Valuentum's Take

We're huge fundamental fans of the garbage hauling industry and hold Republic Services in the portfolio of our Best Ideas Newsletter. There's really nothing too frightening about the dividend health of Waste Management and Republic given their robust free cash flow, but we're not rushing to add them to the portfolio of our Dividend Growth Newsletter on the basis of their mediocre Valuentum Dividend Cushion scores (and hefty debt loads). Still, the structural characteristics of the garbage industry are among the strongest in our coverage universe given the value of landfill ownership. We're keeping a close eye on the group.

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>>> Team Health Holdings, Inc. provides outsourced healthcare professional staffing and administrative services to hospitals and other healthcare providers in the United States. It recruits and contracts with healthcare professionals who then provide professional services in third-party healthcare facilities. The company offers a range of services, including recruiting, scheduling, and credential coordinating for clinical and non-clinical medical professionals; coding, billing, and collecting fees for services provided by medical professionals; providing experienced medical directors; administrative support services, such as payroll, professional liability insurance coverage, continuing medical education services, and management training; claims and risk management services; and standardized procedures and operational consulting. It provides outsourced physician staffing and administrative services in emergency medicine; inpatient services, including hospitalists comprising the specialties of internal medicine, orthopedic surgery, general surgery, and OB/GYN; anesthesiology; urgent care; pediatrics; and other hospital-based functions. The company also offers healthcare management physician-related services; and non-physician staffing services, such as para-professional providers, nursing, specialty technicians, and administrative staffing to military and government facilities. In addition, it provides medical call center services, such as physician after-hours call coverage, community nurse lines, emergency department advice calls, physician referral, class scheduling, appointment scheduling, and Web response. The company serves approximately 800 civilian and military hospitals, clinics, and physician groups in 47 states through healthcare professionals, such as physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, certified registered nurse anesthetists, and registered nurses. Team Health Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee. <<<