abrdn plc Sells 11,626 Shares of West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST)

abrdn plc lessened its position in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) by 6.2% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 176,465 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock after selling 11,626 shares during the quarter. abrdn plc’s holdings in West Pharmaceutical Services were worth $53,127,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in WST. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in West Pharmaceutical Services by 60.5% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,837 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $2,055,000 after purchasing an additional 2,201 shares during the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services in the first quarter valued at approximately $398,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. lifted its stake in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 191,469 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $75,766,000 after buying an additional 2,759 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its stake in shares of West Pharmaceutical Services by 10.7% during the 1st quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,849 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $1,127,000 after buying an additional 275 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AMI Asset Management Corp boosted its holdings in West Pharmaceutical Services by 3.3% in the 1st quarter. AMI Asset Management Corp now owns 164,738 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $65,188,000 after buying an additional 5,217 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.90% of the company’s stock.

West Pharmaceutical Services Trading Up 2.6 %

Shares of WST stock opened at $318.41 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.24, a PEG ratio of 23.68 and a beta of 1.01. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $301.08 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $320.33. West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. has a 1 year low of $265.00 and a 1 year high of $413.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 3.00 and a quick ratio of 2.23.

West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The medical instruments supplier reported $1.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.35. West Pharmaceutical Services had a return on equity of 18.41% and a net margin of 17.37%. The company had revenue of $746.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $709.62 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.16 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. will post 6.55 earnings per share for the current year.

West Pharmaceutical Services Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 20th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 13th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.26%. This is an increase from West Pharmaceutical Services’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 13th. West Pharmaceutical Services’s dividend payout ratio is presently 11.87%.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP Charles Witherspoon sold 1,029 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total transaction of $308,700.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 1,478 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $443,400. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.53% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.