At least the guidance that earnings will be flat makes it easy to analyse the company - just use previous years figures. On that basis, we have a PE of 11.7, which is about right for a low growth company. Div yield is 3.1% which is a bit low if the company cannot use profits to grow the company. So, it all comes down to whether you think the current position is an aberation from a growth profile or not. Waste management is resilient against recession but it is still impacted, as evidenced by BIN's comments about the decline in building construction. They also indicate more difficult competition and that is a concern, with margins showing a significant fall-back. I think that to buy at today's prices is reasonably low risk because they are based on a low growth scenario. Whether BIN is a BUY, is indeed another story. Nevertheless, as a contrarian, I felt it worth taking a stake today. As others have commented, it is not often that a SP declines by 49% in a single day without a company heading to liquidation, and I cannot see this happening very quickly with BIN's balance sheet.
BIN Price at posting:
$1.17 Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held