West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) to Issue $0.21 Quarterly Dividend

West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 20th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be given a dividend of 0.21 per share by the medical instruments supplier on Wednesday, May 7th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 30th.

West Pharmaceutical Services has decreased its dividend by an average of 4.5% per year over the last three years. West Pharmaceutical Services has a dividend payout ratio of 11.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect West Pharmaceutical Services to earn $7.86 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.84 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 10.7%.

West Pharmaceutical Services Stock Up 3.5 %

WST opened at $210.72 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $316.29 and a 200 day moving average of $310.57. The company has a market cap of $15.24 billion, a PE ratio of 31.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.74 and a beta of 1.01. West Pharmaceutical Services has a 12 month low of $197.01 and a 12 month high of $400.88. The company has a current ratio of 2.79, a quick ratio of 2.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08.

West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The medical instruments supplier reported $1.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.75 by $0.07. West Pharmaceutical Services had a net margin of 17.03% and a return on equity of 18.60%. The business had revenue of $748.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $739.59 million. On average, sell-side analysts expect that West Pharmaceutical Services will post 6.62 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on WST. StockNews.com cut shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 14th. KeyCorp lowered their target price on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from $470.00 to $325.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from $350.00 to $355.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $344.00.

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.