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

West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 28th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be given a dividend of 0.21 per share by the medical instruments supplier on Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.25%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 7th.

West Pharmaceutical Services has raised its dividend by an average of 5.4% annually over the last three years. West Pharmaceutical Services has a dividend payout ratio of 9.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect West Pharmaceutical Services to earn $7.52 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 11.2%.

West Pharmaceutical Services Trading Down 0.9 %

West Pharmaceutical Services stock opened at $340.07 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $24.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.46, a PEG ratio of 18.59 and a beta of 1.00. West Pharmaceutical Services has a fifty-two week low of $265.00 and a fifty-two week high of $413.70. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $330.44 and its 200-day moving average price is $313.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 2.23 and a current ratio of 3.00.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on WST. UBS Group raised West Pharmaceutical Services from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $350.00 to $390.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Citigroup began coverage on West Pharmaceutical Services in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $400.00 target price on the stock. Wolfe Research began coverage on West Pharmaceutical Services in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on West Pharmaceutical Services from $350.00 to $355.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, West Pharmaceutical Services presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $430.20.

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.