West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) has received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the five brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $435.20.

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. StockNews.com cut West Pharmaceutical Services from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $323.00 to $536.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from $400.00 to $375.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 13th.

West Pharmaceutical Services Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WST opened at $357.40 on Wednesday. West Pharmaceutical Services has a 12 month low of $310.42 and a 12 month high of $415.73. The stock has a market cap of $26.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.15, a PEG ratio of 6.14 and a beta of 1.04. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $377.48 and its 200 day moving average price is $363.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 2.61 and a quick ratio of 1.95.

West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The medical instruments supplier reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.27. The company had revenue of $695.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $670.62 million. West Pharmaceutical Services had a return on equity of 20.57% and a net margin of 19.42%. The firm’s revenue was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.98 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that West Pharmaceutical Services will post 7.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

West Pharmaceutical Services Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 7th. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 31st will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 31st. West Pharmaceutical Services’s dividend payout ratio is presently 10.55%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Chad Winters sold 815 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.82, for a total value of $292,438.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 1,309 shares in the company, valued at $469,695.38. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CAO Chad Winters sold 815 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.82, for a total value of $292,438.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 1,309 shares in the company, valued at $469,695.38. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Charles Witherspoon sold 2,019 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.62, for a total transaction of $724,053.78. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 1,979 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $709,708.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 73,978 shares of company stock worth $26,653,772. Corporate insiders own 0.53% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in West Pharmaceutical Services by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,002,632 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $3,170,007,000 after purchasing an additional 104,740 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,105,589 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $741,420,000 after buying an additional 28,010 shares in the last quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership increased its holdings in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 23.2% during the fourth quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 1,961,063 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $690,530,000 after buying an additional 369,792 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. increased its holdings in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 8.4% during the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 1,414,431 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $498,049,000 after buying an additional 109,369 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services during the fourth quarter worth approximately $300,250,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.90% of the company’s stock.

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.