West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (WST) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.21 on November 20th

West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, October 24th,Zacks Dividends reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 13th will be paid a dividend of 0.21 per share by the medical instruments supplier on Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 13th. This is a boost from West Pharmaceutical Services’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20.

West Pharmaceutical Services has increased its dividend by an average of 5.8% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 32 years. West Pharmaceutical Services has a dividend payout ratio of 11.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect West Pharmaceutical Services to earn $7.54 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 11.1%.

West Pharmaceutical Services Trading Up 0.2 %

WST opened at $324.10 on Monday. West Pharmaceutical Services has a 12 month low of $265.00 and a 12 month high of $413.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.09, a PEG ratio of 24.51 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 3.00 and a quick ratio of 2.23. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $303.33 and a 200 day moving average price of $316.92.

West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The medical instruments supplier reported $1.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.35. The company had revenue of $746.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $709.62 million. West Pharmaceutical Services had a return on equity of 18.41% and a net margin of 17.37%. West Pharmaceutical Services’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.16 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that West Pharmaceutical Services will post 6.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other West Pharmaceutical Services news, VP Charles Witherspoon sold 703 shares of West Pharmaceutical Services stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $310.40, for a total transaction of $218,211.20. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 1,253 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $388,931.20. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.53% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.