mardi 20 mars 2018

Trash

Let's talk about waste.

As human being, the main thing we produce is waste. We produce more waste than we earn money. We produce more waste than we buy food or clothes. Human beings are there to spoil the planet and leave it dirtier after their passage than it was before. Many philosophers have spend all their life searching for that very simple meaning of life.

You may be tired of my constant sarcasm about everything, but you can't argue on what I'm saying here. We destroy our planet. For every single ecologist out there, there's at least 10 people who don't give a shit about oceans, animals and everything on that planet. Asians and Africans are reproducing faster and faster and claim their right to develop their country which will happen at the expense of our planet. Soon, we'll be 15 billion people on earth and it's gonna be ugly and it's gonna stink.

But let's see the positive economic aspect of that coming apocalypse: there's gonna be some money to make. 

A company operating in the sector of trash has a garantee of longevity. Eternal longevity. That's surely what you're looking for as an investor.

So let's take a look at three trash stocks that I've recently took a look at. They all look interesting to me in some aspect or another.

1- Waste Connection (WCN)
Forward PE: 27
Performance last 5 years: 230%
Performance last 10 years: 500%
Annual EPS growth last 5 years: 14%
Current ROE:10
Stock float: Large dilution (+43% shares over the last 3 years)
Debt: high
Predictability according to Value Line: High
Free cash flows: "A" rating (growing every year for the last 5 years)


2- Waste Management (WM)
Forward PE: 20
Performance last 5 years: 131%
Performance last 10 years: 153%
Annual EPS growth last 5 years: 27%
Current ROE: 45
Stock float: buybacks (-4% shares over the last 3 years)
Debt: medium
Predictability according to Value Line: High
Free cash flows:  "A" rating (growing every year for the last 5 years)


3- Republic Services (RSG)
Forward PE: 20
Performance last 5 years: 114%
Performance last 10 years: 131%
Annual EPS growth last 5 years: 19%
Current ROE: 16
Stock float:  buybacks (-4% shares over the last 3 years)
Debt: high
Predictability according to Value Line: High
Free cash flows:  "A" rating (growing every year for the last 5 years)

Despite what's written above, the growth of WM and RSG has slowed down lately. The momentum stock among these three is Waste Connection. However, the ROE of WCN is the lower of the three and there's a lot of dilution with that stock. I don't really like that. But the market prefers growth to everything else. The market prefers high growth to buy backs or high ROE. So, feel free to ignore my opinion.

But I'm not done yet with my opinion. The best managed company is probably Waste Management.

Anyway, all three have had growing free cash flows over the last five years (come on, try to find some stocks that achieved that, you'll see that it's gonna be pretty hard), and they operate in a very predictable industry. That's exactly what any investor should be looking for.

Perhaps there's no home-run there, but at least, there's steady and safe growth.




9 commentaires:

  1. How does the future bode for these wonderful businesses in a rising rate environment given much of the trash they haul away is tied to either some form of housing or construction?

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    1. Rising rates will hurt many businesses before waste stocks in my opinion.

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  2. Maybe next year, you and Robin Speziale can go to the global waste symposium (no idea where it's held) and find the great garbage stock of the future.

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  3. yeah... I guess I'd have sort of the same bleak vision of the future. Do those waste management companies invest in technologies to turn garbage into power?

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  4. I don’t want to spoil the party here but there is a few points to think about in the waste business. First, it is very expansive to open a new landfill or expand the existing one and it takes several years to get the environmental approval, if you get it. There is also the environmental liabilities that goes with it that can be a potential company killers. There is a reduction of tonnage to landfill due to increase in composting etc.

    But if have a lot of space in an already approved facilities, located at a strategic location, this location can be a money cow

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  5. Michel, the points you made are valid but I actually see them as a positive for the companies mentioned. A high barrier to entry gives these companies a Moat and explains the predictability of the sector mentioned above. Companies that are already in the space have a huge advantage over new competitors.

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    1. Do most of their income come from or depend of local governments?

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  6. Not sure, maybe Penetrator knows since he did some research into the 3 companies? Personally I haven't looked into any of them. I was speaking generally about companies with high barriers of entry.

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