Wealth Alliance Has $324,000 Holdings in West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST)

Wealth Alliance cut its holdings in West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) by 3.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 920 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock after selling 30 shares during the quarter. Wealth Alliance’s holdings in West Pharmaceutical Services were worth $324,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of WST. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its position in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 4.4% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 4,864 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $1,998,000 after acquiring an additional 207 shares during the last quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. raised its position in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 54.4% during the first quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 849 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $349,000 after acquiring an additional 299 shares during the last quarter. National Pension Service raised its position in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 0.4% during the first quarter. National Pension Service now owns 103,190 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $42,381,000 after acquiring an additional 394 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 1.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,716,312 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $3,579,876,000 after acquiring an additional 82,459 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Baird Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 152.8% during the first quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 4,262 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $1,751,000 after acquiring an additional 2,576 shares during the last quarter. 93.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Eric Mark Green sold 64,132 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $359.85, for a total transaction of $23,077,900.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 152,908 shares in the company, valued at $55,023,943.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Eric Mark Green sold 64,132 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $359.85, for a total transaction of $23,077,900.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 152,908 shares in the company, valued at $55,023,943.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Silji Abraham sold 7,012 shares of West Pharmaceutical Services stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $365.00, for a total value of $2,559,380.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,660 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,700,900. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 73,978 shares of company stock worth $26,653,772 over the last quarter. 0.53% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

West Pharmaceutical Services Trading Down 0.0 %

Shares of WST stock opened at $377.35 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $27.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.89, a PEG ratio of 6.45 and a beta of 1.04. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $379.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $364.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 2.24 and a current ratio of 2.88. West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $310.42 and a fifty-two week high of $415.73.

West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The medical instruments supplier reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $732.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $740.43 million. West Pharmaceutical Services had a return on equity of 21.60% and a net margin of 20.12%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.77 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current year.

West Pharmaceutical Services Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 24th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 23rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.21%. West Pharmaceutical Services’s dividend payout ratio is 10.15%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on WST shares. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded West Pharmaceutical Services from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $323.00 to $536.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. StockNews.com downgraded West Pharmaceutical Services from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. UBS Group lowered their target price on West Pharmaceutical Services from $400.00 to $375.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their target price on West Pharmaceutical Services from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $435.20.

West Pharmaceutical Services Company Profile

West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc designs, manufactures, and sells containment and delivery systems for injectable drugs and healthcare products in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It operates in two segments, Proprietary Products and Contract-Manufactured Products.