Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Purchases New Shares in West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 4,500 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock, valued at approximately $1,585,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of WST. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its stake in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 4.4% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 4,864 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $1,998,000 after acquiring an additional 207 shares in the last quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. grew its stake in West Pharmaceutical Services by 54.4% during the first quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 849 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $349,000 after buying an additional 299 shares in the last quarter. National Pension Service grew its stake in West Pharmaceutical Services by 0.4% during the first quarter. National Pension Service now owns 103,190 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $42,381,000 after buying an additional 394 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in West Pharmaceutical Services by 1.0% during the first 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. Finally, Baird Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in West Pharmaceutical Services by 152.8% during the first quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 4,262 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $1,751,000 after buying an additional 2,576 shares in the last quarter. 93.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

West Pharmaceutical Services Stock Down 1.4 %

WST stock opened at $372.06 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.45 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 12 month low of $310.42 and a 12 month high of $415.73. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $378.56 and a 200-day moving average price of $364.11.

West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The medical instruments supplier reported $1.83 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 net margin of 20.12% and a return on equity of 21.60%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.77 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. will post 7.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

West Pharmaceutical Services Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 24th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 23rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.22%. West Pharmaceutical Services’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.15%.

Insider Activity at West Pharmaceutical Services

In related news, CAO Chad Winters sold 815 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.82, for a total value of $292,438.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 1,309 shares in the company, valued at approximately $469,695.38. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CAO Chad Winters sold 815 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.82, for a total value of $292,438.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 1,309 shares in the company, valued at approximately $469,695.38. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Charles Witherspoon sold 2,019 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.62, for a total transaction of $724,053.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 1,979 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $709,708.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 73,978 shares of company stock worth $26,653,772 in the last quarter. 0.53% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

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.