West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) shares rose slightly today on third-quarter results that topped the consensus forecast.
The Exton, Pennsylvania-based maker of injectable drug packaging and delivery systems posted profits of $175.6 million, or $2.31 per share, on sales of $706.5 million for the three months ended Sept. 30, 2021, more than doubling its bottom-line on sales growth of 28.9%.
Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share were $2.06, 26¢ ahead of Wall Street, where analysts were looking for sales of $687.1 million.
“We had robust growth in all three of our proprietary products market units, led by the sales of components in our high-value product (HVP) portfolio,” West Pharmaceutical Services President & CEO Eric M. Green said in a news release. “This quarter’s strong performance came from both our base business, especially in the Biologics market unit, and COVID-19 related sales. Demand continues to grow for our premium offerings, such as NovaPure and FluroTec components, and, as a result, we are again increasing our planned capital expenditures, commencing next year, to expand HVP capacity at existing sites.”
West Pharmaceutical Services said it now expects to log adjusted EPS of between $8.40 and $8.50, compared with a range of $8.05 to $8.20 previously. The company updated its prior sales guidance for between $2.8 billion and $2.81 billion, rising from a range of $2.76 billion to $2.785 billion.
The company’s board of directors approved a fourth-quarter 2021 dividend of 18¢ per share, representing a 5.9% increase over the 17¢ per share paid in each of the four preceding quarters.
WST shares were up 0.4% at $423.07 per share in mid-morning trading today. MassDevice’s MedTech 100 Index — which includes stocks of the world’s largest medical device companies — has not experienced a significant change.
