Casella Waste Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CWST) shares are trading lower by 5.44% to $100.92 during Wednesday's session after the company announced a $450 million public offering of 4.5 million shares at $100 per share.

What Else: This offering will generate gross proceeds of approximately $450 million before accounting for underwriting discounts and offering-related expenses.

Additionally, Casella has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 675,000 shares at the same price, minus the underwriting discounts. All the shares involved in the offering are being sold by Casella itself.

The offering is expected to close on or around September 19, subject to the fulfillment of customary closing conditions. Casella plans to use the net proceeds from this offering to fund its previously announced acquisitions of Royal Carting and Welsh Sanitation.

In addition to financing the acquisition, Casella intends to use a portion of the proceeds to repay borrowings under its revolving credit facility and for other general corporate purposes.

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How To Buy CWST Stock

By now you're likely curious about how to participate in the market for Casella Waste Systems – be it to purchase shares, or even attempt to bet against the company.

Buying shares is typically done through a brokerage account. You can find a list of possible trading platforms here. Many will allow you to buy 'fractional shares,' which allows you to own portions of stock without buying an entire share. For example, some stock, like Berkshire Hathaway, can cost thousands of dollars to own just one share. However, if you only want to invest a fraction of that, brokerages will allow you to do so.

In the the case of Casella Waste Systems, which is trading at $101.43 as of publishing time, $100 would buy you 0.99 shares of stock.

If you're looking to bet against a company, the process is more complex. You'll need access to an options trading platform, or a broker who will allow you to 'go short' a share of stock by lending you the shares to sell. The process of shorting a stock can be found at this resource. Otherwise, if your broker allows you to trade options, you can either buy a put option, or sell a call option at a strike price above where shares are currently trading – either way it allows you to profit off of the share price decline.