West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) Updates 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.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on WST. UBS Group decreased their target price 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. StockNews.com downgraded shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from a hold rating to a buy rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $323.00 to $536.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Tuesday, February 13th. 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, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $435.20.

West Pharmaceutical Services Stock Performance

NYSE:WST traded down $7.75 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $360.43. 603,058 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 516,190. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.05, a P/E/G ratio of 6.59 and a beta of 1.04. West Pharmaceutical Services has a twelve month low of $310.42 and a twelve month high of $415.73. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $377.67 and a 200 day moving average of $364.29. The company has a current ratio of 2.88, a quick ratio of 2.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

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

West Pharmaceutical Services Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 7th. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 31st will be given 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 (DPR) is currently 10.15%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other West Pharmaceutical Services news, SVP Silji Abraham sold 7,012 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $365.00, for a total transaction of $2,559,380.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 4,660 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,700,900. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other West Pharmaceutical Services news, SVP Silji Abraham sold 7,012 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $365.00, for a total transaction of $2,559,380.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 4,660 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,700,900. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Eric Mark Green sold 64,132 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $359.85, for a total transaction of $23,077,900.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 152,908 shares in the company, valued at approximately $55,023,943.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 73,978 shares of company stock worth $26,653,772 in the last quarter. 0.53% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.