Volume, Margin Growth Trumping Recycling Woes at Waste Management

Recycling volumes are down at Waste Management (WM) - Get Report , but so are expenses, and that's helped lift shares of the company up over 23 percent so far in 2016. 'We are an operating company, so controlling operating costs is a continue focus,' said the company's newly elevated president James Fish. Waste Management named Fish as its new president last week on the heels of reporting better-than-expected results for the second quarter. Fish will retain the CFO role while Waste Management conducts a search to fill that position. He will report to CEO David Steiner, who previously held the president role in addition to serving as CEO. Last week Waste Management reported second-quarter adjusted earnings of $0.74 a share, exceeding Wall Street expectations of $0.71 a share. The garbage and recycling hauler posted revenue of $3.43 billion in the period, which topped Street forecasts of $3.39 billion.