Woodline Partners LP Purchases Shares of 19,454 West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST)

Woodline Partners LP purchased a new stake in West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 19,454 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock, valued at approximately $6,372,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in West Pharmaceutical Services by 6.3% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,449,811 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $1,130,020,000 after buying an additional 203,198 shares in the last quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership lifted its position in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 3,110,903 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $1,019,007,000 after purchasing an additional 44,376 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. lifted its position in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 11.7% in the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 2,552,036 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $835,945,000 after purchasing an additional 266,488 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,778,940 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $581,209,000 after purchasing an additional 38,757 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 83.1% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,090,603 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $357,238,000 after purchasing an additional 494,828 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WST has been the topic of a number of research reports. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $275.00 price objective on the stock. KeyCorp dropped their price target on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from $470.00 to $325.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services in a research report on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $332.50.

West Pharmaceutical Services Price Performance

NYSE:WST opened at $205.67 on Friday. West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. has a one year low of $187.43 and a one year high of $352.33. The company has a market cap of $14.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.74, a P/E/G ratio of 6.74 and a beta of 1.14. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $213.12 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $271.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 2.79 and a quick ratio of 2.23.

West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The medical instruments supplier reported $1.45 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.23. West Pharmaceutical Services had a net margin of 17.03% and a return on equity of 18.60%. The firm had revenue of $698.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $685.24 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.56 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. will post 6.62 earnings per share for the current year.

West Pharmaceutical Services Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 6th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 30th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 30th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.41%. West Pharmaceutical Services’s dividend payout ratio is currently 13.19%.

West Pharmaceutical Services 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.