WCNWaste Connections, Inc.
Is it safe?
Nothing alarming, nothing pristine: insiders quiet, comfortable debt (BBB), and steady price behavior.
Insiders were net sellers (-$1.4M, 90 days to Oct 8, 2026), selling is often routine.
Investment-grade balance sheet. A rule of thumb on leverage, not a credit rating.
Relatively steady, low volatility. Worst drawdown -32% · now 14% below its 52-week high.
Where this answer is blind. Altman sits structurally low for utilities and pipelines; Beneish runs high for fast growers, since sales growth alone lifts it; banks and REITs are excluded.
Can WCN take a bad year?
Waste Connections, Inc. carries $9.19B of net debt at 3.36× EBITDA: a load its earnings can carry.
Net debt · as at Q2 2026 · between two and four years of EBITDA, normal for a stable business
- Net debt / EBITDA
- 3.36×
Net debt / EBITDA · 3.86× a year ago · the load is coming down
- Interest cover
- 4.75×
Interest cover · operating profit covers the interest bill, with room to spare
- Annualised volatility
- 20%
Annualised volatility · about as steady as the market itself
Details›
- Total debtQ2 2026
- $9.29B
- Cash and short-term investments
- $98M
- Net debt
- $9.19B
- EBITDA, trailing twelve months
- $2.74B
- Operating profit, trailing twelve months
- $1.66B
- Debt / equity
- 1.17×
- Total debt / EBITDA
- 3.39×
- Annualised volatilitytwo years of daily moves
- 20%
- Worst drawdown on file
- −32%
- Below its 52-week high
- 14%
Balance sheet from SEC filings; drawdown and volatility from end-of-day closes; Altman Z from the filed statements.