Waste Management beats quarterly profit estimates on higher prices

(Reuters) – Waste Management Inc (NYSE:) on Tuesday reported quarterly profit above Wall Street estimates, shored up by higher prices amidst resilient demand for garbage disposal and collection.

Consumer costs for trash collection rose 6.9% for the year, as corporations and public entities come to terms with labor shortages and higher costs for parts and truck maintenance resulting from the pandemic.

Core prices for the third-quarter increased 6.6%, with volumes of collection and disposal of garbage up 0.3%.

Waste Management and Republic Services (NYSE:) are the two biggest companies in the waste services industry which along with municipal waste departments dominate garbage collection from homes and apartments in large parts of the United States.

Waste Management’s total revenue in the quarter ended Sept. 30 rose about 2% to $5.20 billion.

The company posted a quarterly profit of $1.63 per share, up from $1.54 per share last year. Analysts, on average, had expected a profit of $1.61 per share.