UPDATE: Waste Connections Price Target Lowered at Wunderlich

According to a research report published this morning, Wunderlich Securities reiterated its Buy rating for Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE: WCN) and lowered its price target to $38.Wunderlich mentions in the report, “we visited with CFO Worthing Jackman at the WCN temporary new headquarters in The Woodlands, TX. Not surprising, the location is appropriately WCN frugal without being austere. All things being equal, the quarter is on track to meet the mid-point of guidance, maybe with a bias to the low end depending on how paper prices end the month of June. For the first time in a while, WCN is experiencing better container weights on the West Coast. If this pattern is sustainable, then WCN faces a near-term cost rise while it re-engages incentives to convert a lift in volume into revenue. Lower paper prices may have a marginal impact on 2Q12, 1/2 penny, and 20bps of margin. Fuel is down, too, which helps to offset this pressure but it needs to be down by 10% to fully counter the lower paper prices. Our $38 target assumes long-term FCF growth of 3.5% with $90mm spent annually on deals with an IRR of 15%.”Waste Connections closed yesterday at $29.38.