NYSE:WST - West Pharmaceutical Services Stock Price, Forecast & News

West Pharmaceutical Services trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol "WST."

West Pharmaceutical Services declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, December 17th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 22nd will be given a dividend of $0.16 per share on Wednesday, February 5th. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, January 21st. This is a boost from West Pharmaceutical Services's previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. View West Pharmaceutical Services' Dividend History.

West Pharmaceutical Services declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, February 15th 2018, which allows the company to repurchase 800,000 outstanding shares, according to EventVestor. This repurchase authorization allows the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

West Pharmaceutical Services Inc. (NYSE:WST) posted its earnings results on Thursday, October, 24th. The medical instruments supplier reported $0.79 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.71 by $0.08. The medical instruments supplier earned $456.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $450.03 million. West Pharmaceutical Services had a net margin of 12.82% and a return on equity of 16.66%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.76 earnings per share. View West Pharmaceutical Services' Earnings History.

West Pharmaceutical Services is scheduled to release their next quarterly earnings announcement on Thursday, February 13th 2020. View Earnings Estimates for West Pharmaceutical Services.

West Pharmaceutical Services updated its FY19 earnings guidance on Thursday, October, 24th. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of $3.10-3.15 for the period, compared to the Thomson Reuters consensus EPS estimate of $3.06. The company issued revenue guidance of $1.815-1.825, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $1.81 billion.

3 equities research analysts have issued 12-month price objectives for West Pharmaceutical Services' shares. Their forecasts range from $112.16 to $135.00. On average, they expect West Pharmaceutical Services' share price to reach $123.05 in the next year. This suggests that the stock has a possible downside of 21.9%. View Analyst Price Targets for West Pharmaceutical Services.

3 Wall Street analysts have issued "buy," "hold," and "sell" ratings for West Pharmaceutical Services in the last year. There are currently 1 sell rating, 1 hold rating and 1 buy rating for the stock, resulting in a consensus recommendation of "Hold." View Analyst Ratings for West Pharmaceutical Services.

News headlines about WST stock have been trending somewhat positive recently, according to InfoTrie Sentiment Analysis. The research group identifies negative and positive media coverage by reviewing more than six thousand blog and news sources in real time. The firm ranks coverage of publicly-traded companies on a scale of negative five to positive five, with scores nearest to five being the most favorable. West Pharmaceutical Services earned a news sentiment score of 1.5 on InfoTrie's scale. They also assigned news coverage about the medical instruments supplier a news buzz of 0.0 out of 10, meaning that recent media coverage is extremely unlikely to have an impact on the company's share price in the immediate future. View News Stories for West Pharmaceutical Services.

West Pharmaceutical Services saw a increase in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,340,000 shares, an increase of 25.2% from the December 15th total of 1,070,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 419,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.2 days. Approximately 1.8% of the shares of the company are sold short. View West Pharmaceutical Services' Current Options Chain.

Some companies that are related to West Pharmaceutical Services include Align Technology (ALGN), Cooper Companies (COO), DENTSPLY SIRONA (XRAY), Haemonetics (HAE), ICU Medical (ICUI), Neogen (NEOG), Quidel (QDEL), Merit Medical Systems (MMSI), STAAR Surgical (STAA), Atrion (ATRI), Antares Pharma (ATRS), Anika Therapeutics (ANIK), Cerus (CERS), OraSure Technologies (OSUR) and Meridian Bioscience (VIVO).

Based on aggregate information from My MarketBeat watchlists, some companies that other West Pharmaceutical Services investors own include Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Mcdonald's (MCD), PepsiCo (PEP), Lowe's Companies (LOW), Medtronic (MDT), NVIDIA (NVDA), AFLAC (AFL), PPG Industries (PPG), Sherwin-Williams (SHW) and Stryker (SYK).

West Pharmaceutical Services' stock is owned by many different of institutional and retail investors. Top institutional investors include Riverbridge Partners LLC (0.80%), Nisa Investment Advisors LLC (0.10%), Louisiana State Employees Retirement System (0.02%), State of Alaska Department of Revenue (0.02%), DNB Asset Management AS (0.02%) and IFM Investors Pty Ltd (0.01%). Company insiders that own West Pharmaceutical Services stock include Daniel Malone, Karen Flynn, Patrick J Zenner and William J Federici. View Institutional Ownership Trends for West Pharmaceutical Services.

WST stock was sold by a variety of institutional investors in the last quarter, including Nisa Investment Advisors LLC, Riverbridge Partners LLC and First Hawaiian Bank. View Insider Buying and Selling for West Pharmaceutical Services.

WST stock was bought by a variety of institutional investors in the last quarter, including DNB Asset Management AS, IFM Investors Pty Ltd, State of Alaska Department of Revenue, Wedbush Securities Inc., Sciencast Management LP, Cerebellum GP LLC, Huntington National Bank and Louisiana State Employees Retirement System. View Insider Buying and Selling for West Pharmaceutical Services.

Shares of WST can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages with access to the U.S. stock market include Vanguard Brokerage Services, TD Ameritrade, E*TRADE, Robinhood, Fidelity and Charles Schwab.

One share of WST stock can currently be purchased for approximately $157.59.

West Pharmaceutical Services has a market capitalization of $11.66 billion and generates $1.72 billion in revenue each year. The medical instruments supplier earns $206.90 million in net income (profit) each year or $2.81 on an earnings per share basis. West Pharmaceutical Services employs 7,700 workers across the globe.View Additional Information About West Pharmaceutical Services.

The official website for West Pharmaceutical Services is http://www.westpharma.com/.

West Pharmaceutical Services' mailing address is 530 HERMAN O. WEST DRIVE, EXTON PA, 19341. The medical instruments supplier can be reached via phone at 610-594-2900 or via email at [email protected]