West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results

West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The medical instruments supplier reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.27, Briefing.com reports. West Pharmaceutical Services had a net margin of 19.42% and a return on equity of 20.29%. The company had revenue of $695.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $670.62 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.98 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. West Pharmaceutical Services updated its FY 2024 guidance to 7.630-7.880 EPS.

West Pharmaceutical Services Stock Down 2.1 %

Shares of West Pharmaceutical Services stock opened at $360.43 on Friday. West Pharmaceutical Services has a twelve month low of $310.42 and a twelve month high of $415.73. The stock has a market cap of $26.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.27 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a current ratio of 2.88, a quick ratio of 2.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $377.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $364.13.

West Pharmaceutical Services Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at West Pharmaceutical Services

In other news, VP Charles Witherspoon sold 2,019 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.62, for a total value of $724,053.78. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 1,979 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $709,708.98. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, VP Charles Witherspoon sold 2,019 shares of West Pharmaceutical Services stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.62, for a total transaction of $724,053.78. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 1,979 shares in the company, valued at $709,708.98. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, 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 transaction of $292,438.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 1,309 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $469,695.38. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 73,978 shares of company stock valued at $26,653,772 over the last three months. 0.53% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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