Casella Waste Systems (CWST) saw its loss widen to $11.97 million, or $0.29 a share for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2016. In the previous year period, the company reported a loss of $7.02 million, or $0.17 a share. On an adjusted basis, net profit for the quarter stood at $1.94 million, or $0.05 a share compared with a net loss of $1.62 million, or $0.04 a share in the last year period.
Revenue during the quarter went up marginally by 2.69 percent to $143.80 million from $140.02 million in the previous year period. Gross margin for the quarter expanded 99 basis points over the previous year period to 32.15 percent. Total expenses were 93.05 percent of quarterly revenues, down from 96.64 percent for the same period last year. This has led to an improvement of 359 basis points in operating margin to 6.95 percent.
Operating income for the quarter was $10 million, compared with $4.70 million in the previous year period.
However, the adjusted operating income for the quarter stood at $10.90 million compared to $8.15 million in the prior year period. At the same time, adjusted operating margin improved 176 basis points in the quarter to 7.58 percent from 5.82 percent in the last year period.
"We had another strong quarter as we continued to execute well against our key management strategies of increasing landfill returns, improving collection profitability, creating incremental value through resource solutions, and reducing leverage through strict capital discipline and debt repayment," said John W. Casella, chairman and chief executive officer of Casella Waste Systems, Inc. "The progress we have made on our strategies clearly drove positive financial results in fiscal year 2016, with Adjusted Operating Income up 50.3%, Adjusted Operating Income margins up 250 basis points, Normalized Free Cash Flow up 45.6%, and total shareholder returns of 107.5% during 2016."
Casella Waste Systems forecasts revenue to be in the range of $577 million to $587 million for fiscal year 2017.
Operating cash flow improves
Casella Waste Systems has generated cash of $80.43 million from operating activities during the year, up 14.08 percent or $9.93 million, when compared with the last year.
The company has spent $62.96 million cash to meet investing activities during the year as against cash outgo of $48.78 million in the last year. It has incurred net capital expenditure of $52.84 million on net basis during the year, up 8.42 percent or $4.10 million from year ago.
The company has spent $17.24 million cash to carry out financing activities during the year as against cash outgo of $21.62 million in the last year period.
Cash and cash equivalents stood at $2.54 million as on Dec. 31, 2016, up 10.03 percent or $0.23 million from $2.31 million on Dec. 31, 2015.
Working capital remains negative
Working capital of Casella Waste Systems was negative $3.84 million on Dec. 31, 2016 compared with negative $8.68 million on Dec. 31, 2015. Current ratio was at 0.95 as on Dec. 31, 2016, up from 0.90 on Dec. 31, 2015.
Days sales outstanding were almost stable at 20 days for the quarter, when compared with the last year period.
At the same time, days payable outstanding was almost stable at 21 days for the quarter, when compared with the previous year period.
Debt remains almost stable
Total debt of Casella Waste Systems remained almost stable for the quarter at $508.65 million, when compared with the last year period. Total debt was 80.54 percent of total assets as on Dec. 31, 2016, compared with 78.08 percent on Dec. 31, 2015. Interest coverage ratio deteriorated to 1.09 for the quarter from 0.47 for the same period last year.
Disclaimer: Please note that this is an auto-generated article. IRIS does not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of any information and is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of such information. IRIS especially states that it has no financial liability whatsoever to any user on account of the use of information provided on its website. For queries contact: editor@irisindia.net
