Waste Management key statistics and ratios
In fiscal 2025, Waste Management had return on equity of 29.7% and a net margin of 10.7%. Each ratio below is calculated from the figures on its income statement, balance sheet and cash flow pages.
Financial ratios
| Fiscal year | 2009Dec 2009 | 2010Dec 2010 | 2011Dec 2011 | 2012Dec 2012 | 2013Dec 2013 | 2014Dec 2014 | 2015Dec 2015 | 2016Dec 2016 | 2017Dec 2017 | 2018Dec 2018 | 2019Dec 2019 | 2020Dec 2020 | 2021Dec 2021 | 2022Dec 2022 | 2023Dec 2023 | 2024Dec 2024 | 2025Dec 2025 | LTMSept 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Net margin | 8.4% | 7.6% | 7.2% | 6.0% | 0.7% | 9.3% | 5.8% | 8.7% | 13.5% | 12.9% | 10.8% | 9.8% | 10.1% | 11.4% | 11.3% | 12.4% | 10.7% | 11.8% |
| Return on equity | 15.8% | 15.2% | 15.6% | 13.2% | 1.6% | 22.4% | 13.4% | 22.2% | 34.4% | 31.3% | 25.0% | 20.6% | 24.9% | 32.0% | 33.5% | 36.2% | 29.7% | 30.9% |
| Return on assets | 4.7% | 4.5% | 4.4% | 3.6% | 0.4% | 5.9% | 3.6% | 5.7% | 9.1% | 8.7% | 6.6% | 5.2% | 6.2% | 7.4% | 7.2% | 7.1% | 6.0% | 6.6% |
| Effective tax rate | 28.0% | 38.6% | 33.6% | 34.0% | 73.7% | 23.6% | 29.1% | 35.2% | 11.0% | 19.1% | 20.6% | 21.0% | 22.6% | 23.2% | 24.7% | 20.6% | 20.9% | 21.1% |
| SG&A as % of revenue | 11.6% | 11.7% | 11.6% | 10.8% | 10.5% | 10.6% | 10.4% | 10.4% | 10.1% | 9.7% | 10.6% | 11.4% | 10.4% | 9.8% | 9.4% | 10.3% | 10.8% | 10.4% |
| Dividends ÷ net income | 57.2% | 63.4% | 66.3% | 80.5% | 696.9% | 53.4% | 92.3% | 61.4% | 38.5% | 41.7% | 52.5% | 62.0% | 53.4% | 48.1% | 49.3% | 44.1% | 49.3% | 48.0% |
Financial health
- Short-term assets cover short-term liabilities $5.2bn of assets due within a year against $6.4bn of liabilities due within a year.
- Short-term assets cover long-term liabilities $5.2bn short-term assets against $30.3bn of longer-dated liabilities.
- More cash than debt $247m of cash against $23.4bn of debt.
- Debt below 40% of shareholders' equity Debt is 237% of equity.
- Debt burden no higher than five years ago Debt to equity moved from 183% to 237% over five years.
- A year's operating cash flow covers at least 20% of debt $6.6bn of operating cash flow against $23.4bn of debt.
- Operating profit covers interest at least five times over Interest not separately reported. Not assessable.
Moat
Strong moat
How hard Waste Management's competitive advantage looks for rivals to wear away, judged from 10 years of its own filings: returns on capital, pricing power, profit durability, cash conversion and discipline.
- Returns on capital 20 / 20
Cash operating profit has been a median 18.0% of total assets over 10 years.
- Pricing power 14 / 20
Gross margin has been a median 38.3%, moving by 1.0 percentage points (standard deviation) across 10 years.
- Durability 15 / 20
Operating margin has been a median 17.7%; its worst year was 16.2%.
- Cash conversion 16 / 20
Free cash flow was positive in 10 of 10 years, at a median 11.3% of revenue.
- Discipline 18 / 20
The diluted share count fell 5.0% over five years; stock-based pay has been a median 0.6% of revenue.
AI disruption exposure: Low. In this industry, the business rests on physical assets, regulated networks or products AI itself depends on.
Compare with peers
More: Environmental & Facilities Services stocks compared, Industrials sector, rankings of US companies