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

West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 20th, RTT News reports. Shareholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a 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 9.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect West Pharmaceutical Services to earn $7.77 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 10.8%.

West Pharmaceutical Services Price Performance

West Pharmaceutical Services stock traded up $0.94 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $203.43. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,801,192 shares, compared to its average volume of 902,128. The company has a quick ratio of 2.23, a current ratio of 3.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. West Pharmaceutical Services has a twelve month low of $197.01 and a twelve month high of $400.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.41, a P/E/G ratio of 10.09 and a beta of 1.01. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $321.24 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $311.96.

West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The medical instruments supplier reported $1.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.75 by $0.07. West Pharmaceutical Services had a return on equity of 18.62% and a net margin of 17.03%. The business had revenue of $748.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $739.59 million. Research analysts forecast that West Pharmaceutical Services will post 6.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. UBS Group upgraded shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $350.00 to $390.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised West Pharmaceutical Services from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Bank of America upped their price target on West Pharmaceutical Services from $350.00 to $355.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Citigroup started coverage on West Pharmaceutical Services in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. They set a “buy” rating and a $400.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, West Pharmaceutical Services currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.