International Assets Investment Management LLC Purchases 18,522 Shares of West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST)

International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) by 13,230.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 18,662 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock after acquiring an additional 18,522 shares during the quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC’s holdings in West Pharmaceutical Services were worth $6,571,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of WST. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in West Pharmaceutical Services by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,716,312 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $3,579,876,000 after buying an additional 82,459 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,719,972 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $404,796,000 after purchasing an additional 12,228 shares during the period. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership lifted its stake in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 57.2% in the 3rd quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 1,591,271 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $597,061,000 after purchasing an additional 578,796 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,542,451 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $533,210,000 after purchasing an additional 35,627 shares during the period. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. lifted its stake in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 1,305,062 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $489,672,000 after purchasing an additional 35,788 shares during the period. 93.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other West Pharmaceutical Services news, SVP Silji Abraham sold 7,012 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $365.00, for a total transaction of $2,559,380.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 4,660 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,700,900. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Silji Abraham sold 7,012 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $365.00, for a total transaction of $2,559,380.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,660 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,700,900. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Chad Winters sold 815 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.82, for a total transaction of $292,438.30. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 1,309 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $469,695.38. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 73,978 shares of company stock worth $26,653,772. Corporate insiders own 0.53% of the company’s stock.

West Pharmaceutical Services Price Performance

WST stock opened at $380.00 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $381.45 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $363.88. The stock has a market cap of $27.82 billion, a PE ratio of 48.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.49 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a current ratio of 2.88, a quick ratio of 2.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. has a 1 year low of $310.42 and a 1 year high of $415.73.

West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The medical instruments supplier reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $732.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $740.43 million. West Pharmaceutical Services had a return on equity of 21.60% and a net margin of 20.12%. The company’s revenue was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.77 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

West Pharmaceutical Services Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 24th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 23rd. West Pharmaceutical Services’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.15%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on WST. StockNews.com downgraded West Pharmaceutical Services from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from $400.00 to $375.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 16th. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $323.00 to $536.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $435.20.

West Pharmaceutical Services Profile

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.