Waste Management (WM)

Strong business that is good in all economic cycles. Earnings continue to grow at 11%. Fundamentally ranks at 8/10. Would recommend buying. Defensive business with stable dividend yield. High quality cash flow yields. 

Reported a tremendous quarter, and shares popped 6% today in a bad market. A good operator before, but much better now.

Quite defensive. Last quarter, WM cited lower costs and favourable pricing trends. 9% growth rate, but 23x. With all the carnage on the side of the highway, you don't need to be paying this much. Look in other areas.

Classified as an industrial, but it doesn't have cyclicality. Zero product obsolescence. Sold WCN in favour of this one.

Great, stable business model. Wide economic moat, barriers to entry. Streamlined costs. Tends to do well in more of a down or sideways market, similar to healthcare or consumer staples. Started to underperform last October. Decent yield of 1.67%.

A treasure in a challenging market environment. A light industrial, since there isn't much cyclicality. Good line of sight to high single-digit organic growth rate. Tuck-in acquisitions. Vertically integrated. Good recycling business, with an emerging renewable nat gas division. A happy shareholder.

WM vs. WCN Fell last year, and now is picking up steam. It's more of a utility industrial than a cyclical. If you want cyclical, look at CAT or other industrial names. 28x forward earnings for 11% growth, so a bit rich for him. Fundamentally, a great business. Better valuation than WCN and growth is about the same. To choose, he'd pick WM, the larger one.