Waste Connections reports ‘better than expected’ Q1 results

Waste Connections Inc., Toronto, has announced its results for the first quarter of 2025. 

Revenues totaled $2.2 billion, up from $2 billion in the year-ago period, or 7.5 percent. Operating income was $390.2 million, which included $20.2 million primarily in “transaction-related expenses, impairments and other operating items and fair value accounting changes associated with certain equity awards,” the company says. This compares to operating income of $366.8 million in the first quarter of 2024.

Net income in the first quarter was $241.5 million, or 93 cents per share on a diluted basis of 258.9 million shares. A year ago, Waste Connections reported net income of $230.1 million, or 89 cents per share on a diluted basis of 258.5 million shares.   

Adjusted net income in the first quarter was $293.1 million, or $1.13 per diluted share, up from $268.7 million, or $1.04 per diluted share, in the prior year period, while adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, was $712.2 million compared with $650.7 million in the previous year.  

President and CEO Ron Mittelstaedt credits this strong start to 2025 to price-led organic solid waste growth and continued acquisition activity, positioning the company well for the full year. 

“Exemplary operational execution supported core solid waste pricing of 6.9 percent and drove better than expected results as we overcame incremental volume weakness from protracted weather events across many markets to exceed our outlook and deliver an adjusted EBITDA margin of 32 percent,” he says in a news release about the company's quarterly earnings. 

Mittelstaedt notes these results are “indicative of the durability of [Waste Connections’] unique approach to market selection, a decentralized operating model and resulting projectability from [a] commitment to excellence.”

Continued acquisition activity was completed at “outsized levels,” he adds, with annualized revenues closed to date exceeding $125 million, including a recycling facility in New Jersey to complement the company’s growth in the Northeast. 

“The strength of our financial position and free cash flow generation provides optionality for continued above-average acquisition activity during 2025, along with increasing return of capital to shareholders,” Mittelstaedt says.