California State Teachers Retirement System Sells 2,936 Shares of West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. $WST

California State Teachers Retirement System lessened its stake in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) by 2.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 110,634 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock after selling 2,936 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in West Pharmaceutical Services were worth $27,729,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of WST. State Street Corp increased its stake in West Pharmaceutical Services by 2.1% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,271,866 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $715,884,000 after purchasing an additional 68,330 shares in the last quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership raised its holdings in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 2,850,401 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $784,259,000 after purchasing an additional 79,481 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,869,086 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $512,250,000 after purchasing an additional 11,962 shares in the last quarter. Generation Investment Management LLP grew its stake in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 60.0% in the 4th quarter. Generation Investment Management LLP now owns 1,561,869 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $429,733,000 after buying an additional 585,855 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,531,858 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $421,476,000 after buying an additional 53,229 shares during the period. 93.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on WST. KeyCorp boosted their target price on West Pharmaceutical Services from $350.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. Zacks Research upgraded West Pharmaceutical Services from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 13th. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $425.00 price objective on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on West Pharmaceutical Services from $325.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, Barclays raised West Pharmaceutical Services from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $310.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $364.42.

West Pharmaceutical Services Stock Performance

NYSE WST opened at $341.04 on Friday. West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. has a 1 year low of $223.83 and a 1 year high of $386.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 2.82 and a quick ratio of 2.12. The firm has a market cap of $24.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.67, a PEG ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $339.80 and a 200-day moving average price of $289.51.

West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The medical instruments supplier reported $2.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.08 by $0.29. West Pharmaceutical Services had a net margin of 16.98% and a return on equity of 20.11%. The company had revenue of $872.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $839.98 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.84 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. West Pharmaceutical Services has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 2.140-2.240 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 8.850-9.050 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. will post 8.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

West Pharmaceutical Services Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 5th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 29th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 29th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. West Pharmaceutical Services’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 11.27%.

West Pharmaceutical Services Profile

West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc is a global developer and manufacturer of components, systems and services that enable the containment and delivery of injectable drugs. The company focuses on high-quality packaging and delivery solutions for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, producing primary drug packaging components and specialized drug delivery devices used for vaccines, biologics and other injectable therapies. West is known for its elastomeric closures, seals and polymer components that maintain sterility and compatibility with sensitive drug formulations.

In addition to component manufacturing, West provides engineered delivery systems and support services across the product lifecycle.