Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich Acquires New Position in West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST)

Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich acquired a new position in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 8,207 shares of the medical instruments supplier's stock, valued at approximately $2,890,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 13,230.0% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 18,662 shares of the medical instruments supplier's stock worth $6,571,000 after buying an additional 18,522 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 8.8% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 750,306 shares of the medical instruments supplier's stock worth $281,524,000 after buying an additional 60,927 shares during the period. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 10.8% during the third quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,830 shares of the medical instruments supplier's stock worth $687,000 after buying an additional 179 shares during the period. Ninety One North America Inc. boosted its stake in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 25.3% during the fourth quarter. Ninety One North America Inc. now owns 11,720 shares of the medical instruments supplier's stock worth $4,127,000 after buying an additional 2,368 shares during the period. Finally, Czech National Bank boosted its stake in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 12,958 shares of the medical instruments supplier's stock worth $4,563,000 after buying an additional 49 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.90% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WST has been the subject of several recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their target price for the stock from $323.00 to $536.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. UBS Group reduced their price objective 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. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 13th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $435.20.

West Pharmaceutical Services Price Performance

Shares of WST stock traded down $7.75 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $360.43. 603,058 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 378,628. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $377.63 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $363.97. West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. has a 1-year low of $310.42 and a 1-year high of $415.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 2.88 and a quick ratio of 2.24. The firm has a market cap of $26.39 billion, a PE ratio of 47.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.27 and a beta of 1.04.

West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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. West Pharmaceutical Services had a net margin of 19.42% and a return on equity of 20.29%. The company had revenue of $695.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $670.62 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.98 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. will post 7.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

West Pharmaceutical Services Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 7th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 31st will be paid 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.55%.

Insider Transactions at West Pharmaceutical Services

In other news, CAO Chad Winters sold 815 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.82, for a total transaction 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other West Pharmaceutical Services news, CEO Eric Mark Green sold 64,132 shares of West Pharmaceutical Services stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $359.85, for a total value of $23,077,900.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 152,908 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $55,023,943.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Chad Winters sold 815 shares of West Pharmaceutical Services stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.82, for a total transaction of $292,438.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 1,309 shares of the company's stock, valued at $469,695.38. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 73,978 shares of company stock valued at $26,653,772 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.53% of the company's stock.

West Pharmaceutical Services 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.