WM Announces First Quarter 2026 Earnings

WM (NYSE: WM) today announced financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2026.

“Strong earnings and cash flow results in the quarter achieved our expectations, reflecting the strength of the WM team and the resilience of our business model,” said Jim Fish, WM’s CEO. “Disciplined pricing, cost optimization and contributions from sustainability growth projects led to first quarter adjusted operating EBITDA growth of 5.9% and margin expansion of 70 basis points despite a challenging quarter of weather impacts. ^(a) The momentum in our business, combined with our confidence in our ability to execute on our plan for the balance of the year, sets us up to achieve the full-year financial outlook we provided last quarter.”

Fish continued, “Our start to 2026 strengthens our conviction in the ability to harvest the benefits of our strategic investments in recycling, renewable energy, a medical waste platform, technology, and our fleet, as free cash flow nearly doubled in the quarter compared to prior year. ^(a) We allocated the majority of first quarter free cash flow to shareholders, returning nearly $730 million through dividends and share repurchases during the quarter. Our balance sheet remains flexible, reflecting our financial discipline and positioning WM to capitalize on opportunities in any economic environment.”

KEY HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE FIRST QUARTER OF 2026

• Adjusted operating EBITDA grew 5.9%, with margin expanding 70 basis points. ^(a) Performance was led by the Collection and Disposal business, driven by disciplined price execution, operating cost control, and continued optimization of business mix.
• Collection and Disposal operating EBITDA grew by $154 million and margin expanded 190 basis points. On an adjusted basis, operating EBITDA grew by $118 million and margin expanded 110 basis points. The improvement was driven by favorable price-to-cost spread as the Company invests in making improvements in frontline retention and leverages technology and automation to reduce costs. ^(a)
• Together, operating EBITDA in the Recycling and Renewable Energy businesses grew $51 million, or $49 million on an adjusted basis, driven by increased renewable natural gas production from growth projects as well as higher recycling volumes and benefits from automation projects. ^(a)(e)
• Operating EBITDA grew by 18.4%, or 11.6% on an adjusted basis, in the Healthcare Solutions business, driven by effective SG&A cost management and synergy capture. ^(a)
• Revenue grew 3.5%, driven by core price of 6.3% and collection and disposal yield of 3.9%. In addition to strong execution on pricing, revenue growth was driven by increased volumes in the Recycling and Renewable Energy businesses from completed growth projects. ^(f)
• Collection and disposal volume declined 1.5%, primarily due to the impacts of harsh winter weather, intentional shedding of lower-margin residential business, and wildfire cleanup activities that benefitted the prior year period. These volume declines were partially offset by growth in MSW volume.
• Operating expenses were 59.3% of revenue, or 59.2% on an adjusted basis, which was an improvement of 70 basis points both on a reported and adjusted basis from the prior year and reflects the Company’s commitment to using technology and automation to optimize its cost structure and enhance operational efficiency. ^(a)(c)
• The Company generated $1.5 billion of net cash provided by operating activities compared to $1.21 billion in the prior year period, primarily driven by operating EBITDA growth and working capital improvements. Free cash flow was $920 million, compared to $475 million in the prior year period. ^(a)
• The Company returned $729 million to shareholders in the first quarter, including $385 million in cash dividends and $344 million of share repurchases.
• During the quarter, the Company’s leverage ratio returned to its target range of between 2.5 to 3.0 times total debt to EBITDA. ^(g)
• The Company began operations at new recycling facilities in Ontario and Detroit and completed a recycling automation project in South Florida, which is now its largest single stream facility. Together, the projects added nearly 300,000 tons of processing capacity.

The Company will host a conference call at 10 a.m. ET on April 29, 2026, to discuss the first quarter 2026 results. Information contained within this press release will be referenced and should be considered in conjunction with the call.

Listeners can access a live audio webcast of the conference call by visiting investors.wm.com and selecting “Events & Presentations” from the website menu. A replay of the audio webcast will be available at the same location following the conclusion of the call.

Conference call participants should register to obtain their dial in and passcode details. This streamlined process improves security and eliminates wait times when joining the call.

ABOUT WM

WM ( WM.com ) is North America's leading provider of comprehensive environmental solutions. Previously known as Waste Management and based in Houston, Texas, WM is driven by commitments to put people first and achieve success with integrity. The company, through its subsidiaries, provides collection, recycling and disposal services to millions of residential, commercial, industrial, medical and municipal customers throughout the U.S. and Canada. With innovative infrastructure and capabilities in recycling, organics and renewable energy, WM provides environmental solutions to and collaborates with its customers in helping them pursue their sustainability goals. In North America, WM has the largest disposal network and collection fleet, is the largest recycler and is a leader in beneficial use of landfill gas, with a growing network of renewable natural gas plants and the most landfill gas-to-electricity plants, as well as the largest heavy-duty natural gas truck fleet in the industry. WM also provides collection and disposal services of regulated medical waste and secure information destruction services in the U.S., Canada and Western Europe. To learn more about WM and the company's sustainability progress and solutions, visit Sustainability.WM.com .

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

The Company, from time to time, provides estimates or projections of financial and other data, comments on expectations relating to future periods and makes statements of opinion, view or belief about current and future events, circumstances or performance. This press release contains a number of such forward-looking statements, including all statements regarding future growth, earnings, value creation, performance and results of our business; targets, financial guidance and outlook; ability to achieve the Company’s 2026 outlook; and technology and automation investments and results. You should view these statements with caution. They are based on the facts and circumstances known to the Company as of the date the statements are made. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to be materially different from those set forth in such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to, failure to implement our optimization, automation, growth, and cost savings initiatives and overall business strategy; failure to obtain the results anticipated from strategic initiatives, investments, acquisitions, or new lines of business; failure to identify acquisition targets, consummate and integrate acquisitions, including our ability to integrate the acquisition of Stericycle, Inc. (which is now presented as our Healthcare Solutions segment) and achieve the anticipated benefits therefrom, including synergies; legal, regulatory, operational, technological and other matters that may affect the costs and timing of our ability to integrate and deliver all of the expected benefits of the Stericycle, Inc. acquisition; existing or new environmental and other regulations, including developments related to emerging contaminants, gas emissions, renewable energy, recyclables, extended producer responsibility and our natural gas fleet; significant environmental, safety or other incidents resulting in liabilities or brand damage; failure to obtain and maintain necessary permits due to land scarcity, public opposition or otherwise; diminishing landfill capacity, resulting in increased costs and the need for disposal alternatives; failure to attract, hire and retain key team members and a high quality workforce; increases in labor costs due to union organizing activities or changes in wage- and labor-related regulations; disruption and costs resulting from severe weather and destructive climate events; failure to achieve our sustainability goals or execute on our sustainability-related strategy and initiatives, including within planned timelines or anticipated budgets due to disruptions, delays, cost increases or changes in environmental or tax regulations and incentives; focus on, and regulation of, environmental and sustainability-related disclosures, which could lead to increased costs, risk of non-compliance, brand damage and litigation risk related to our sustainability efforts; macroeconomic conditions, geopolitical conflict and large-scale market disruption resulting in labor, supply chain and transportation constraints, inflationary cost pressures and fluctuations in commodity prices, fuel and other energy costs; increased competition and pricing pressure; impacts from international trade restrictions and tariffs; competitive disposal alternatives, diversion of waste from landfills and declining waste volumes; changes in general economic conditions, capital markets or consumer trends; changing conditions in the recycling industry, including impacts on demand, pricing and availability of counterparties; changing conditions in the healthcare industry; adoption of new tax legislation; fuel shortages; failure to develop and protect new technology; failure of technology to perform as expected; inability to adapt and manage the benefits and risks of artificial intelligence; failure to prevent, detect and address cybersecurity incidents or comply with privacy regulations; negative outcomes of litigation or governmental proceedings, including those acquired through transactions; failure to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting; and operational or management decisions or developments that result in impairment charges. Please also see the Company’s filings with the SEC, including Part I, Item 1A of the Company’s most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K, as updated by subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, for additional information regarding these and other risks and uncertainties applicable to its business. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, including financial estimates and forecasts, whether as a result of future events, circumstances or developments or otherwise.

NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES

To supplement its financial information, the Company has presented, and/or may discuss on the conference call, adjusted measures including adjusted earnings per diluted share, adjusted net income, adjusted income from operations and margin, adjusted operating EBITDA and margin, adjusted operating expense and margin, and adjusted SG&A expenses and margin. All adjusted measures and free cash flow are non-GAAP financial measures, as defined in Regulation G of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The Company reports its financial results in compliance with GAAP but believes that also discussing non-GAAP measures provides investors with (i) financial measures the Company uses in the management of its business and (ii) additional, meaningful comparisons of current results to prior periods’ results by excluding items that the Company does not believe reflect its fundamental business performance and are not representative or indicative of its results of operations.

The Company discusses free cash flow and provides a projection of free cash flow because the Company believes that it is indicative of its ability to pay its quarterly dividends, repurchase common stock, fund acquisitions and other investments and, in the absence of refinancings, to repay its debt obligations. The Company believes free cash flow gives investors useful insight into how the Company views its liquidity, but the use of free cash flow as a liquidity measure has material limitations because it excludes certain expenditures that are required or that the Company has committed to, such as declared dividend payments and debt service requirements. The Company defines free cash flow as net cash provided by operating activities, less capital expenditures, plus proceeds from divestitures of businesses and other assets (net of cash divested); this definition may not be comparable to similarly-titled measures reported by other companies.

The quantitative reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures are included in the accompanying schedules, with the exception of projected adjusted operating EBITDA and margin. Non-GAAP measures should not be considered a substitute for financial measures presented in accordance with GAAP.