West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) Now Covered by Analysts at Citigroup

Citigroup started coverage on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) in a research note published on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage issued a buy rating and a $400.00 price target on the medical instruments supplier’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. UBS Group upgraded shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $350.00 to $390.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from $350.00 to $355.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $430.20.

West Pharmaceutical Services Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE WST opened at $336.71 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $325.00 and its 200-day moving average price is $312.32. The company has a quick ratio of 2.23, a current ratio of 3.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The company has a market cap of $24.39 billion, a PE ratio of 49.96, a PEG ratio of 25.04 and a beta of 1.00. West Pharmaceutical Services has a 52-week low of $265.00 and a 52-week high of $413.70.

West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The medical instruments supplier reported $1.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.35. The firm had revenue of $746.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $709.62 million. West Pharmaceutical Services had a net margin of 17.37% and a return on equity of 18.41%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.16 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that West Pharmaceutical Services will post 6.64 EPS for the current year.

West Pharmaceutical Services Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 20th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 13th were issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 13th. This is a positive change from West Pharmaceutical Services’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.25%. West Pharmaceutical Services’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 12.46%.

Insider Activity at West Pharmaceutical Services

In other West Pharmaceutical Services news, VP Charles Witherspoon sold 703 shares of West Pharmaceutical Services stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $310.40, for a total transaction of $218,211.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 1,253 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $388,931.20. The trade was a 35.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.53% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of West Pharmaceutical Services

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of WST. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 199.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 595,775 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $178,828,000 after purchasing an additional 396,780 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 21.8% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 683,350 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $205,114,000 after purchasing an additional 122,361 shares during the last quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC raised its position in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 29.7% in the 3rd quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 444,000 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $133,271,000 after purchasing an additional 101,710 shares during the last quarter. DF Dent & Co. Inc. raised its position in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 33.0% in the 3rd quarter. DF Dent & Co. Inc. now owns 397,152 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $119,209,000 after purchasing an additional 98,564 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its position in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 88.4% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 134,483 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $40,366,000 after purchasing an additional 63,102 shares during the last quarter. 93.90% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About West Pharmaceutical Services

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.