West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) Releases FY 2024 Earnings Guidance

West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) updated its FY 2024 earnings guidance on Thursday. The company provided earnings per share guidance of 7.630-7.880 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of 7.620. The company issued revenue guidance of $3.0 billion-$3.0 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $3.0 billion.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on WST. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from $400.00 to $375.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Jefferies Financial Group raised West Pharmaceutical Services from a hold rating to a buy rating and increased their target price for the stock from $323.00 to $536.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. KeyCorp boosted their price target on West Pharmaceutical Services from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Tuesday, February 13th. Finally, StockNews.com cut West Pharmaceutical Services from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. 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, West Pharmaceutical Services presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $435.20.

West Pharmaceutical Services Stock Performance

Shares of WST opened at $360.43 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 2.24 and a current ratio of 2.88. West Pharmaceutical Services has a 1 year low of $310.42 and a 1 year high of $415.73. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $377.63 and a 200-day moving average of $363.97. The company has a market cap of $26.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.13 and a beta of 1.04.

West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The medical instruments supplier reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.27. West Pharmaceutical Services had a return on equity of 20.29% and a net margin of 19.42%. The company had revenue of $695.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $670.62 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.98 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that West Pharmaceutical Services will post 7.65 earnings per share for the current year.

West Pharmaceutical Services Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at West Pharmaceutical Services

In other West Pharmaceutical Services news, VP Charles Witherspoon sold 2,019 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 1,979 shares in the company, valued at approximately $709,708.98. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CAO Chad Winters sold 815 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 1,309 shares in the company, valued at $469,695.38. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, VP Charles Witherspoon sold 2,019 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.62, for a total value of $724,053.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 1,979 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $709,708.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 73,978 shares of company stock worth $26,653,772 in the last 90 days. 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.