Clean Harbors (CLHB): Price consolidating in bullish 'flag'


Clean Harbors (NASDAQ: CLHB) is a leading North American provider of environmental and hazardous waste management services. The firm operates 49 waste management facilities, including commercial landfills, incineration locations, oil recycling facilities, wastewater treatment centers and polychlorinated biphenyl management plants. It provides essential services to over 45,000 customers, including some two-thirds of the Fortune 500, thousands of smaller private entities and numerous federal, state and local governmental agencies.

The firm surprised the Street last week, when it reported Q4 EPS of 81 cents and revenues of $257.7 million. Analysts had been expecting 67 cents and $244.5 million. Management also guided Q1 revenues to $225-$230 million, versus consensus of $225.67 million. The CEO noted that he expects the pending acquisition of two solvent recycling facilities from Safety-Kleen Systems to be closed by the end of March and to be accretive to earnings during 2008. Wedbush Morgan and RBC Capital Markets subsequently reiterated "strong buy" and "top pick" ratings on the stock, respectively.

The share price popped above 30-day moving average support on the news and then moved into a bullish "flag" consolidation pattern. Stocks frequently exit flags moving in the same direction they were traveling on entry. In this case, that would be to the upside.

Altogether, brokers recommend the issue with three "strong buys", two "buys" and one "hold". Analysts see a 26% growth rate, through the next year. The CLHB PEG ratio (1.43), Price to Sales ratio (1.29), EPS Growth rate (44.64%) and Return on Equity (23.39%) compare favorably with industry, sector and S&P 500 averages. Institutional investors hold about 90% of the outstanding shares. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock has traded between $42.52 and $63.54. A stop-loss of $53.90 looks good here.

Larry Schutts is a contributing editor for Theflyonthewall.com and the Vice-President of Stockwinners.com. He does not hold a position in the stock discussed above.

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA-89.2312,801.23
NASDAQ-23.352,903.88
S&P 500-9.311,342.64

Last updated: February 13, 2012: 02:51 AM

Hot Stocks

General Electric

18.875-0.255(-1.33)

Alcoa

10.29-0.35(-3.29)

Apple Inc

493.42+0.25(+0.05)

Google Inc 'A'

605.91-5.55(-0.91)

Bank of America

8.07-0.11(-1.34)

Wal-Mart Stores

61.90-0.06(-0.10)

Exxon Mobil Corp

83.80-1.08(-1.27)

Ford

12.44-0.25(-1.97)

Citigroup

32.925-0.735(-2.18)

IBM

192.42-0.71(-0.37)

Yahoo

16.14+0.14(+0.88)

Starbucks

48.82-0.38(-0.77)

Microsoft

30.495-0.275(-0.89)

Home Depot

45.33+0.06(+0.13)

DailyFinance Headlines

Benzinga Headlines

TheFlyOnTheWall.com Headlines

    BioHealth Investor Headlines

    WalletPop Headlines

    DailyFinance BlackBerry App

    My Portfolios

    Track your stocks here!

    Find out why more people track their portfolios on AOL Money & Finance then anywhere else.

    BloggingStocks Partners

    More from AOL Money & Finance

    BioHealth Investor Headlines

    Page Loaded in 1329119492196 ms.