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 EPS guidance of 7.630-7.880 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS 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 equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded West Pharmaceutical Services from a hold rating to a buy rating and boosted their price target for the company from $323.00 to $536.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. UBS Group dropped their target price on 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. StockNews.com lowered West Pharmaceutical Services from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price target on West Pharmaceutical Services from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, West Pharmaceutical Services has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $435.20.

West Pharmaceutical Services Price Performance

WST stock traded down $7.75 on Friday, reaching $360.43. The company had a trading volume of 603,058 shares, compared to its average volume of 516,190. The company’s fifty day moving average is $377.67 and its 200 day moving average is $364.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 2.24 and a current ratio of 2.88. The company has a market cap of $26.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.05, a PEG ratio of 6.59 and a beta of 1.04. West Pharmaceutical Services has a 1 year low of $310.42 and a 1 year high of $415.73.

West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The medical instruments supplier reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.27. The company had revenue of $695.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $670.62 million. West Pharmaceutical Services had a return on equity of 21.60% and a net margin of 20.12%. West Pharmaceutical Services’s revenue was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.98 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that West Pharmaceutical Services will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current year.

West Pharmaceutical Services Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 7th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 31st. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.22%. West Pharmaceutical Services’s payout ratio is 10.15%.

Insider Activity at West Pharmaceutical Services

In other West Pharmaceutical Services news, CAO Chad Winters sold 815 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.82, for a total value of $292,438.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 1,309 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $469,695.38. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other West Pharmaceutical Services news, CAO Chad Winters sold 815 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.82, for a total value of $292,438.30. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 1,309 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $469,695.38. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Silji Abraham sold 7,012 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of 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. In the last three months, insiders 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.