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

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 paid 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 dividend yield of 0.41%.

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% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research 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 Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of West Pharmaceutical Services stock opened at $203.43 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 2.79 and a quick ratio of 2.23. West Pharmaceutical Services has a 1 year low of $197.01 and a 1 year high of $400.88. The company has a market capitalization of $14.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.41, a P/E/G ratio of 6.70 and a beta of 1.01. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $318.68 and a 200 day moving average price of $311.20.

West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 18.60% and a net margin of 17.03%. The firm had revenue of $748.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $739.59 million. Sell-side analysts anticipate that West Pharmaceutical Services will post 6.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on WST. Bank of America boosted their price target on West Pharmaceutical Services from $350.00 to $355.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. KeyCorp cut their price target on West Pharmaceutical Services from $470.00 to $325.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 14th. Wolfe Research began coverage on West Pharmaceutical Services in a report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Citigroup began coverage on West Pharmaceutical Services in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $400.00 price target for the company. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded West Pharmaceutical Services from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $344.00.

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.