Best Stocks in Waste Management

Photo: epSos.de, Flickr.

Certainty is nice to have, but it's hard to come by in the stock market. Still, you can always choose to focus on relatively reliable industries and companies. Smartphones, social media, and cloud computing are exciting and have great potential. But it's hard to know what those universes will look like in five or 10 years, and what the best stocks will be.

On the other hand, it's fairly certain that we will always have garbage, and that it will always need to be managed. Thus, let's take a look at some of the best stocks in waste management in order to add a little certainty to our portfolios.

Waste Management, Waste Management is a biggie, with a market capitalization of nearly $23 billion and a dividend yield of 3.1%. It's North America's largest waste-management company, providing collection, transfer, recycling and resource recovery, and disposal services to residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal customers. It's not just an old-fashioned garbage collector, though it also owns and operates landfill gas-to-energy facilities.

It's hard for such a big company to grow briskly, but Waste Management has been working on keeping costs down, in part by converting its fleet to run on liquefied natural gas, while raising some prices. The company generates more than $1 billion dollars in free cash flow annually, and its net margin was recently near 7%, a respectable number and greater than that of its closest competitor.

Photo: atramos, Flickr.

US Ecology Inc US Ecology Inc serves the commercial and government worlds, treating, disposing of, and recycling hazardous, non-hazardous and radioactive waste, among other services. It recently acquired The Environmental Quality Company, greatly expanding its capacity, but also delivering a large debt burden, which the company is working on paying down.

One intriguing catalyst for the company is Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: TSLA), which is building a "Gigafactory" to produce lithium-ion batteries in large quantities. The process will inevitably produce hazardous waste, which U.S. Ecology via its location some 440-miles away, might be able to handle. The company's dividend recently yielded 1.6%.

Photo: Mr.TinDC, Flickr.

Clean Harbors Inc Clean Harbors Inc also serves industry and governments, offering end-to-end hazardous waste management, emergency spill response, industrial cleaning and maintenance, and recycling services. Having acquired Safety Kleen in 2012, it's now"North America's largest rerefiner and recycler of used oil and a leading provider of parts washers and environmental services to commercial, industrial and automotive customers."

The company's first-quarter results were disappointing due, in part, to falling oil prices slowing down business; but management noted that:"Looking ahead,Clean Harborsis entering its seasonally strongest quarters, and the trends in our core environmental and industrial businesses are promising. We expect a number of our key vertical markets to drive large-volume project activity and additional opportunities."

Waste ConnectionsWaste Connections is another integrated waste-management company, collecting, disposing, recycling, and composting various waste from residences, businesses, and oilfields. It even offers intermodal services, moving containers of cargo and solid waste. It, too, is turning methane from landfills into electricity. Its recycling efforts are impressive; as the company notes, "...we recycle over 50% of our collected waste volumes on the West Coast, in some cases over 70%."

Revenue, net income, and earnings per share have all been growing by double digits, on average, over the last 10 years. Waste Connections also has some of the highest margins in the industry, with net margins expanding in recent years to approximately 11% today.

Photo: Kevin Gessner, Flickr.

Also interesting...You might also keep an eye on Covanta Holding Corp and Republic Services. Covanta Holding Corp specializes in turning trash into energy via some 46 plants. Its bottom line has turned red in the past few years while revenue growth has stalled, in part due to energyand metals prices putting pressure on its business. That's a temporary problem, though, and Covanta does offer patient believers a 4.7% dividend yield.

Republic Services is America's second-largest trash hauler. As Waste Management has also done, it has bought up some oilfield waste operations, which may seem inopportune at the moment, with oil prices sagging and weakening interest in drilling. However, it could pay off over the long haul. Interestingly, Bill Gates's Cascade Investments owns nearly a third of Republic Services. The company is free-cash-flow positive, and offers a 2.8% dividend yield.

The article Best Stocks in Waste Management originally appeared on Fool.com.

Selena Maranjian has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Republic Services, Tesla Motors, and U.S. Ecology. The Motley Fool owns shares of Clean Harbors,, Tesla Motors, and Waste Management. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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