Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its holdings in Waste Management, Inc. by 18.6% in the fourth quarter, ending the period with 68,661 shares after purchasing an additional 10,746 shares and valuing that position at $15,120,000.
For Johnson Varkey, Waste Management's senior vice president who sold 121 shares on Monday, March 9th, the spike in institutional buying sits beside his small insider sale — he disposed of those shares at an average price of $245.27 for a total of $29,677.67 and still directly owns 9,293 shares.
The Thrivent move was part of a broader wave of institutional adjustments into Waste Management. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake by 51.1% in the fourth quarter and owned 6,861 shares after adding 2,320. Sei Investments Co. lifted its position by 8.0% in the second quarter and ended that period with 272,438 shares after buying 20,122. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake 68.2% in the second quarter, holding 366,416 shares after adding 148,590. Glenview Trust co raised its holding 5.1% to 3,338 shares after buying 162. Sprott Inc. bought a new position in the first quarter worth $325,000, and overall 80.40% of Waste Management stock is held by institutional investors.
Analysts have moved in the same direction. Oppenheimer nudged its price objective from $263.00 to $264.00 on Friday, January 30th; JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its target from $265.00 to $270.00 on Friday, April 10th; Robert W. Baird lifted its target from $248.00 to $260.00 on Thursday, April 16th; and on Thursday, April 30th both Royal Bank Of Canada and TD Cowen increased their objectives — RBC to $240.00 (from $235.00) and TD Cowen to $275.00 (from $270.00). Those moves sit against a consensus made up of one Strong Buy, 15 Buy ratings and eight Hold ratings, producing an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $255.67.
Put together, the purchases and price-target lifts frame Thrivent's buying as part of a clear institutional tilt into the sector: waste management names have been actively reweighted by large investors and upward analyst revisions have followed. At the same time, the insider transaction by Varkey introduces friction — a corporate officer selling 121 shares is factual but small compared with the tens of thousands of shares institutions were adding in the same reporting windows.
That contrast is the story's tension: heavy accumulation by institutions and a stream of analyst upgrades versus an insider sale. The numbers underline the imbalance — Thrivent added 10,746 shares in a single quarter, Manufacturers Life added 148,590, and Sei bought 20,122, while Varkey's 121-share sale was modest both in absolute terms and relative to his remaining 9,293 shares.
Given the scale of institutional buying and the cluster of upward price-target revisions, Waste Management looks to be receiving sustained support from the market's largest players; the small insider sale reads as idiosyncratic rather than a signal of lost confidence. Investors watching the name should expect institutional flows and analyst guidance to remain the primary drivers of the stock's near-term narrative.
