West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) Announces $0.21 Quarterly Dividend

West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 29th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be given a dividend of 0.21 per share by the medical instruments supplier on Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.25%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 7th.

West Pharmaceutical Services has raised its dividend payment by an average of 5.4% annually over the last three years. West Pharmaceutical Services has a payout ratio of 9.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect West Pharmaceutical Services to earn $7.52 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.84 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 11.2%.

West Pharmaceutical Services Trading Down 0.9 %

WST traded down $3.22 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $340.07. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 410,761 shares, compared to its average volume of 422,133. West Pharmaceutical Services has a twelve month low of $265.00 and a twelve month high of $413.70. 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 stock’s fifty day moving average price is $329.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $313.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.46, a PEG ratio of 18.59 and a beta of 1.00.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on WST shares. Wolfe Research started coverage on West Pharmaceutical Services in a report on Friday, December 13th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. UBS Group upgraded West Pharmaceutical Services from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $350.00 to $390.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Bank of America upped their price objective on West Pharmaceutical Services from $350.00 to $355.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Citigroup assumed coverage on West Pharmaceutical Services in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. They set a “buy” rating and a $400.00 price target on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, West Pharmaceutical Services currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $430.20.

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.