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

West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) has received a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the eight research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $332.50.

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on WST. Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $275.00 price objective on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded 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. KeyCorp lowered their price objective on West Pharmaceutical Services from $470.00 to $325.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Stephens raised shares of West Pharmaceutical Services to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 21st.

West Pharmaceutical Services Stock Performance

NYSE WST opened at $213.39 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $15.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.90, a P/E/G ratio of 6.74 and a beta of 1.14. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $216.55 and its 200-day moving average price is $277.99. West Pharmaceutical Services has a fifty-two week low of $187.43 and a fifty-two week high of $367.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 2.23 and a current ratio of 2.79.

West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The medical instruments supplier reported $1.45 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by $0.23. West Pharmaceutical Services had a return on equity of 18.60% and a net margin of 17.03%. The firm had revenue of $698.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $685.24 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.56 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that West Pharmaceutical Services will post 6.62 earnings per share for the current year.

West Pharmaceutical Services Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 6th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 30th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.39%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 30th. West Pharmaceutical Services’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.19%.

Institutional Trading of West Pharmaceutical Services

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank acquired a new position in West Pharmaceutical Services during the 4th quarter worth approximately $290,604,000. Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its position in West Pharmaceutical Services by 28.1% during the first quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 3,268,478 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $731,747,000 after purchasing an additional 716,442 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 5,074.0% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 689,493 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $225,851,000 after buying an additional 676,167 shares during the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in West Pharmaceutical Services by 731.8% during the 4th quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 640,735 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $209,879,000 after buying an additional 563,705 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC grew its holdings in West Pharmaceutical Services by 83.1% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,090,603 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $357,238,000 after buying an additional 494,828 shares during the last quarter. 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.