West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (WST) To Go Ex-Dividend on February 7th

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

West Pharmaceutical Services has increased 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. Equities analysts expect West Pharmaceutical Services to earn $7.49 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 Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE:WST opened at $332.68 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $24.09 billion, a PE ratio of 49.36, a P/E/G ratio of 19.82 and a beta of 1.01. West Pharmaceutical Services has a 1 year low of $265.00 and a 1 year high of $413.70. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $332.00 and its 200 day moving average is $314.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 3.00 and a quick ratio of 2.23.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on WST. Citigroup began coverage on West Pharmaceutical Services in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. They set a “buy” rating and a $400.00 price objective for the company. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from $350.00 to $355.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services in a report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. UBS Group raised shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $350.00 to $390.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, West Pharmaceutical Services has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $430.20.

West Pharmaceutical Services Company 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.