West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) Lowered to Hold Rating by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report published on Saturday morning.

WST has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $345.00 price objective on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 24th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 24th. TD Cowen started coverage on West Pharmaceutical Services in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. They set a “buy” rating and a $350.00 price target for the company. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from $320.00 to $355.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price target on West Pharmaceutical Services from $350.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $343.36.

West Pharmaceutical Services Stock Down 0.6%

WST opened at $279.98 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $20.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.48, a P/E/G ratio of 4.33 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 2.87 and a quick ratio of 2.18. West Pharmaceutical Services has a 12 month low of $187.43 and a 12 month high of $348.90. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $273.70 and its 200 day moving average price is $248.03.

West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The medical instruments supplier reported $1.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.67 by $0.29. West Pharmaceutical Services had a net margin of 16.29% and a return on equity of 18.16%. The firm had revenue of $804.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $788.42 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.85 EPS. West Pharmaceutical Services’s revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. West Pharmaceutical Services has set its FY 2025 guidance at 7.060-7.110 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that West Pharmaceutical Services will post 6.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On West Pharmaceutical Services

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Allworth Financial LP lifted its stake in West Pharmaceutical Services by 68.5% in the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 770 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $202,000 after buying an additional 313 shares in the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc lifted its stake in West Pharmaceutical Services by 98.2% in the third quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 218 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $57,000 after acquiring an additional 108 shares during the last quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd lifted its stake in West Pharmaceutical Services by 13.4% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 19,488 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $5,112,000 after purchasing an additional 2,306 shares during the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment bought a new position in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $427,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 7.7% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 236,963 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $62,163,000 after purchasing an additional 16,919 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.90% of the company’s stock.

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.