West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.20 (NYSE:WST)

West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 25th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 31st will be given a dividend of 0.20 per share by the medical instruments supplier on Wednesday, August 7th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.22%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 31st.

West Pharmaceutical Services has raised its dividend payment by an average of 5.8% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 1 consecutive years. West Pharmaceutical Services has a dividend payout ratio of 8.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect West Pharmaceutical Services to earn $9.12 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 8.8%.

West Pharmaceutical Services Stock Down 4.5 %

WST stock opened at $368.18 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.88, a quick ratio of 2.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. West Pharmaceutical Services has a 1 year low of $310.42 and a 1 year high of $415.73. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $377.67 and a 200 day simple moving average of $364.29. The firm has a market cap of $26.95 billion, a PE ratio of 46.72, a PEG ratio of 6.59 and a beta of 1.04.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other West Pharmaceutical Services news, SVP Silji Abraham sold 7,012 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 4,660 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,700,900. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Eric Mark Green sold 64,132 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $55,023,943.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Silji Abraham sold 7,012 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $365.00, for a total transaction of $2,559,380.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,660 shares of the company’s stock, 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 valued at $26,653,772 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.53% 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.