Wall Street Zen Upgrades West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) to “Buy”

West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Sunday, Wall Street Zen reports.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Morgan Stanley raised shares of West Pharmaceutical Services from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $365.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 22nd. Weiss Ratings raised West Pharmaceutical Services from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $425.00 target price on shares of West Pharmaceutical Services in a research report on Monday, July 27th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on West Pharmaceutical Services from $420.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on West Pharmaceutical Services from $340.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 9th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $424.67.

West Pharmaceutical Services Price Performance

WST opened at $407.82 on Friday. West Pharmaceutical Services has a 1 year low of $223.83 and a 1 year high of $438.27. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $368.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is $313.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.70 billion, a PE ratio of 45.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 2.12 and a current ratio of 2.82.

West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 29th. The medical instruments supplier reported $2.66 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.20 by $0.46. The firm had revenue of $874.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $827.12 million. West Pharmaceutical Services had a net margin of 16.98% and a return on equity of 20.11%. West Pharmaceutical Services’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.96 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that West Pharmaceutical Services will post 9.46 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other West Pharmaceutical Services news, VP Annette Favorite sold 8,135 shares of West Pharmaceutical Services stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.81, for a total transaction of $2,772,489.35. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 16,845 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,740,944.45. The trade was a 32.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold 15,659 shares of company stock worth $5,443,749 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On West Pharmaceutical Services

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in West Pharmaceutical Services during the 2nd quarter worth $2,387,990,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services in the 2nd quarter worth about $733,733,000. Generation Investment Management LLP acquired a new stake in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services in the 2nd quarter valued at about $728,168,000. Findlay Park Partners LLP acquired a new stake in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services in the 2nd quarter valued at about $214,196,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services during the second quarter worth about $176,138,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.90% of the company’s stock.

About West Pharmaceutical Services

West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc develops and manufactures components and delivery systems used in the administration and packaging of injectable medicines and other healthcare products. Its offerings include elastomer closures, seals, syringe components, drug-delivery systems, and other specialized packaging components designed to support the safety, quality, and performance of pharmaceutical products.

The company also provides contract-manufacturing services for pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical-device customers.