West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) shares ticked up before hours on second-quarter results that beat the consensus forecast.
The Exton, Pa.-based company posted profits of $187.3 million, or $2.47 per share, on sales of $723.6 million for the three months ended June 30, 2021, more than doubling its bottom-line on sales growth of 37.3%.
Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share were $2.46, 72¢ ahead of Wall Street, where analysts were looking for sales of $669.4 million.
“Our strong second-quarter performance was driven by continued momentum in organic sales growth in both our base business as well as increased demand for our products associated with COVID-19 vaccines,” West Pharmaceutical Services president & CEO Eric M. Green said in a news release. “Our market-led strategy coupled with our scientific leadership and regulatory insights in primary packaging and delivery of injectable drugs have resonated with our customers, resulting in a high participation rate on newly approved molecular entities, especially large molecule therapies. Over the past year and a half, we have accelerated capital spending and expanded global [high-value product] manufacturing capacity.
“Based on growing future demand from our customers, we are announcing another tranche of capital spending to expand HVP capacity that we expect will be ready for production in 2022. Given the strong first half of the year, we are raising our full-year financial guidance.”
West Pharmaceutical Services said it now expects to log full-year adjusted EPS of between $8.05 and $8.20, compared with a range of $6.95 to $7.10 previously. The company raised its sales guidance for between $2.76 billion and $2.785 billion, having previously set projections at a range of $2.63 billion to $2.655 billion.
WST shares were up 1.3% at $388.83 per share in pre-market trading.
