Vontobel Holding Ltd. Has $940,000 Stock Holdings in West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its stake in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) by 6.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,869 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock after buying an additional 175 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in West Pharmaceutical Services were worth $940,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fiera Capital Corp grew its holdings in West Pharmaceutical Services by 13.2% during the 4th quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 140,893 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $46,151,000 after acquiring an additional 16,418 shares during the last quarter. Trust Point Inc. grew its holdings in West Pharmaceutical Services by 321.0% during the 4th quarter. Trust Point Inc. now owns 3,183 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $1,043,000 after acquiring an additional 2,427 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in West Pharmaceutical Services by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 91,756 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $27,541,000 after acquiring an additional 2,037 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in West Pharmaceutical Services by 22.4% during the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 130,345 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $39,124,000 after acquiring an additional 23,850 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB grew its holdings in West Pharmaceutical Services by 44.6% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 7,195 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $2,160,000 after acquiring an additional 2,220 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on WST shares. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services in a report on Friday, December 13th. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. They set a “buy” rating and a $400.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group upgraded shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $350.00 to $390.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, West Pharmaceutical Services has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $344.00.

West Pharmaceutical Services Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:WST opened at $210.98 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $15.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.30, a P/E/G ratio of 19.31 and a beta of 1.01. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $323.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $312.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 3.00 and a quick ratio of 2.23. West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $197.01 and a fifty-two week high of $400.88.

West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The medical instruments supplier reported $1.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.75 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $748.80 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $739.59 million. West Pharmaceutical Services had a net margin of 17.37% and a return on equity of 18.41%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. will post 6.67 earnings per share for the current year.

West Pharmaceutical Services Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 11th. Investors of record on Friday, February 7th were given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.40%. West Pharmaceutical Services’s dividend payout ratio is 12.46%.

West Pharmaceutical Services 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.