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

West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) announced 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 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 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 Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of West Pharmaceutical Services stock opened at $203.43 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $318.68 and a 200 day moving average price of $311.20. The company has a current ratio of 2.79, a quick ratio of 2.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. West Pharmaceutical Services has a twelve month low of $197.01 and a twelve month high of $400.88. The stock has a market cap of $14.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.70 and a beta of 1.01.

West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The medical instruments supplier reported $1.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.75 by $0.07. West Pharmaceutical Services had a net margin of 17.03% and a return on equity of 18.60%. The firm had revenue of $748.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $739.59 million. Equities research analysts forecast that West Pharmaceutical Services will post 6.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on WST. Citigroup began coverage on West Pharmaceutical Services in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. They set a “buy” rating and a $400.00 price objective on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. KeyCorp dropped their price target on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from $470.00 to $325.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from $350.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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.