West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) Now Covered by Analysts at StockNews.com

Research analysts at StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST – Get Rating) in a report released on Thursday. The brokerage set a “hold” rating on the medical instruments supplier’s stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on WST. UBS Group started coverage on West Pharmaceutical Services in a research report on Wednesday, November 30th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $250.00 target price for the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on West Pharmaceutical Services from $250.00 to $290.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 22nd. Finally, KeyCorp increased their target price on West Pharmaceutical Services from $315.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 17th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $291.25.

West Pharmaceutical Services Price Performance

Shares of WST stock opened at $325.59 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.90, a current ratio of 3.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. West Pharmaceutical Services has a twelve month low of $206.19 and a twelve month high of $424.00. The company has a market cap of $24.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.08. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $281.82 and a 200 day simple moving average of $260.03.

West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 16th. The medical instruments supplier reported $1.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.38. West Pharmaceutical Services had a return on equity of 26.24% and a net margin of 20.30%. The business had revenue of $708.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $657.16 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.04 EPS. West Pharmaceutical Services’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that West Pharmaceutical Services will post 7.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Eric Mark Green sold 44,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.35, for a total value of $14,183,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 85,705 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,627,006.75. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On West Pharmaceutical Services

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Voya Investment Management LLC grew its stake in West Pharmaceutical Services by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 47,358 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $11,146,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the period. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in West Pharmaceutical Services during the fourth quarter worth approximately $99,000. Natixis grew its stake in West Pharmaceutical Services by 96.1% in the fourth quarter. Natixis now owns 9,646 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $2,270,000 after acquiring an additional 4,728 shares during the period. Macquarie Group Ltd. grew its stake in West Pharmaceutical Services by 315.5% in the fourth quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. now owns 488,062 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $114,866,000 after acquiring an additional 370,589 shares during the period. Finally, Wallace Advisory Group LLC acquired a new stake in West Pharmaceutical Services in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $244,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.51% of the company’s stock.

About West Pharmaceutical Services

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West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc manufactures and markets pharmaceuticals, biologics, vaccines and consumer healthcare products. It operates through the following business segments: Proprietary Products and Contract-Manufactured Products. The Proprietary Products segment offers proprietary packaging, containment and drug delivery products, along with analytical lab services, to biologic, generic and pharmaceutical drug customers.