West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) Announces $0.20 Quarterly Dividend

West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 25th, Zacks reports. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 31st.

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

WST stock opened at $360.43 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $26.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.55, a PEG ratio of 6.27 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a quick ratio of 2.24, a current ratio of 2.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $377.63 and a 200-day simple moving average of $364.13. West Pharmaceutical Services has a 52 week low of $310.42 and a 52 week high of $415.73.

West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The medical instruments supplier reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.27. West Pharmaceutical Services had a net margin of 19.42% and a return on equity of 20.29%. The firm had revenue of $695.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $670.62 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.98 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that West Pharmaceutical Services will post 7.65 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at West Pharmaceutical Services

In other West Pharmaceutical Services news, VP Charles Witherspoon sold 2,019 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 1,979 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $709,708.98. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, VP Charles Witherspoon sold 2,019 shares of the 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 transaction, the vice president now owns 1,979 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $709,708.98. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Silji Abraham sold 7,012 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $365.00, for a total transaction of $2,559,380.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,660 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,700,900. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 73,978 shares of company stock valued at $26,653,772 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.53% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WST has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group decreased 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 upped their price target on shares of 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 shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of 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 report on Wednesday, February 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $435.20.

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.