Waste management company Republic Services (NYSE: RSG) will be reporting results this Thursday afternoon. Here’s what investors should know.

Republic Services missed analysts’ revenue expectations by 0.7% last quarter, reporting revenues of $4.24 billion, up 4.6% year on year. It was a satisfactory quarter for the company, with an impressive beat of analysts’ sales volume estimates but a slight miss of analysts’ revenue estimates.

Is Republic Services a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free for active Edge members.

This quarter, analysts are expecting Republic Services’s revenue to grow 4.1% year on year to $4.24 billion, slowing from the 6.5% increase it recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $1.78 per share.

Analysts covering the company have generally reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business to stay the course heading into earnings. Republic Services has missed Wall Street’s revenue estimates five times over the last two years.

Looking at Republic Services’s peers in the environmental and facilities services segment, some have already reported their Q3 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. Waste Connections delivered year-on-year revenue growth of 5.1%, beating analysts’ expectations by 0.5%, and Waste Management reported revenues up 14.9%, falling short of estimates by 0.9%. Waste Connections traded up 2.7% following the results while Waste Management was down 4.4%.

Read our full analysis of Waste Connections’s results here and Waste Management’s results here.

There has been positive sentiment among investors in the environmental and facilities services segment, with share prices up 3.1% on average over the last month. Republic Services is down 4.9% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $255.32 (compared to the current share price of $217.80).

When a company has more cash than it knows what to do with, buying back its own shares can make a lot of sense–as long as the price is right. Luckily, we’ve found one, a low-priced stock that is gushing free cash flow AND buying back shares. Click here to claim your Special Free Report on a fallen angel growth story that is already recovering from a setback.

StockStory is growing and hiring equity analyst and marketing roles. Are you a 0 to 1 builder passionate about the markets and AI? See the open roles here.