Core Pricing Growth Drives Republic Services' Strong Second-Quarter Results; US Ecology Deal Closes

Wide-moat Republic Services’ strong second-quarter results featured record pricing, robust volume gains, and inorganic growth from the US Ecology acquisition. Management gave an upbeat outlook for the rest of the year and raised its guidance for adjusted earnings per share and free cash flow by 4%. We’ve raised our fair value estimate about 5% to $106 per share to reflect a more optimistic near-term forecast (primarily due to stronger pricing) and the time value of money since our prior update.