Waste Management, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides environmental solutions to residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal customers in the United States, Canada, Western Europe, and internationally. It offers collection services, including picking up and transporting waste and recyclable materials from where it was generated to a transfer station, recovery facility, or disposal site; owns and operates transfer stations; and owns, develops, …
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Competitive advantage assessment
Key strengths
Margins Stable Across CyclesOperating margin volatility is low (stability score 1.00), demonstrating pricing resilience across cycles.
ROIC Sustainably Above PeersROIC at 94.1th percentile exceeds peers and WACC, demonstrating superior capital allocation.
The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks
against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.
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Waste Management, Inc. ranks #2 of 19
scored companies in Waste Management by moat score — the top 11%.
The widest moat in the group is Republic Services, Inc. (RSG)
at 88/100.
Moat scores for companies ranked near WM in Waste Management
Pricing power is the ability to raise prices without losing volume.
Cost Advantage
Score 88
· 15% of the moat score
A cost advantage means delivering the same product for structurally less — better purchasing, denser distribution, a more automated process.
Customer Stickiness
Score 85
· 15% of the moat score
Stickiness is what makes revenue repeat without being re-won every year.
Capital Efficiency
Score 85
· 18% of the moat score
Capital efficiency asks what the company earns on the money tied up in the business.
Resilience
Score 59
· 17% of the moat score
Resilience is the capacity to get through a bad year on its own terms — enough liquidity, enough interest cover, and enough cash generation to avoid a rescue financing or a forced sale.
Scale & Market Position
Score 72
· 15% of the moat score
Scale matters only when it converts into economics.
Waste Management, Inc. (WM) scores 81 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as strong. It ranks #2 of 19 scored companies in Waste Management, the top 11%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 18 companies in Waste Management. Its strongest defense is Pricing Power (90/100) and its weakest is Resilience (59/100).
How does Waste Management, Inc. compare with other Waste Management companies?
Waste Management, Inc. ranks #2 of 19 scored companies in Waste Management by moat score. The widest moat in Waste Management is Republic Services, Inc. (RSG) at 88/100. The companies ranked closest are Republic Services, Inc. (RSG) at 88 just above it and Waste Connections, Inc. (WCN) at 79 just below it.
How is the moat score calculated?
Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Corporate Default in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 18 companies in Waste Management. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.
Why is Waste Management, Inc. scored with the Corporate Default template?
Most public companies sell a product or a service at a margin, so the moat question is whether that margin survives contact with competitors. The Corporate template scores the six defenses that show up in a general operating company's financial signature: whether it can hold price, produce more cheaply than rivals, keep its customers, earn a return above its cost of capital, withstand a downturn, and turn size into economics.
Which competitive defenses are measured for Waste Management, Inc.?
The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and WM scores: Pricing Power (90), Cost Advantage (88), Customer Stickiness (85), Capital Efficiency (85), Resilience (59), Scale & Market Position (72). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.
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