West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (WST) To Go Ex-Dividend on July 31st

West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) declared 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 31st.

West Pharmaceutical Services has increased its dividend by an average of 5.8% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 1 years. West Pharmaceutical Services has a dividend payout ratio of 8.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities 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 Trading Down 2.1 %

NYSE:WST opened at $360.43 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $26.39 billion, a PE ratio of 47.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.27 and a beta of 1.04. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $377.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $364.13. West Pharmaceutical Services has a 12-month low of $310.42 and a 12-month high of $415.73. 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 (NYSE:WST) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The medical instruments supplier reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.27. The firm had revenue of $695.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $670.62 million. West Pharmaceutical Services had a return on equity of 20.29% and a net margin of 19.42%. West Pharmaceutical Services’s revenue was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.98 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that West Pharmaceutical Services will post 7.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on WST. UBS Group decreased their target price on West Pharmaceutical Services from $400.00 to $375.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 16th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded West Pharmaceutical Services from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $323.00 to $536.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. StockNews.com cut West Pharmaceutical Services from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price target on West Pharmaceutical Services from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $435.20.

Insider Transactions at West Pharmaceutical Services

In other news, CAO Chad Winters sold 815 shares of West Pharmaceutical Services stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.82, for a total transaction of $292,438.30. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 1,309 shares in the company, valued at $469,695.38. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, VP Charles Witherspoon sold 2,019 shares of West Pharmaceutical Services stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was 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 can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Chad Winters sold 815 shares of West Pharmaceutical Services stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.82, for a total value of $292,438.30. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 1,309 shares in the company, valued at approximately $469,695.38. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 73,978 shares of company stock worth $26,653,772. Corporate 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.