West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST) shares received a massive boost today on fourth-quarter results that beat the consensus forecast.
Shares of WST rose 15.5% at $322.53 apiece in early-morning trading today. MassDevice’s MedTech 100 Index — which includes stocks of the world’s largest medical device companies — rose 10.1%.
The Exton, Pennsylvania-based drug delivery device maker posted profits of $103 million for the quarter. That amounts to $1.36 per share on sales of $708.7 million for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2022.
West recorded a 30.3% bottom-line slide on a sales growth of 30.2%.
Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share totaled $1.77. That landed 39¢ ahead of expectations on Wall Street. Sales topped estimates by a large margin, too, with analysts projecting revenues of $657.2 million.
“I am pleased to report that we had a solid finish to 2022 and that we enter 2023 with a strong order book and continued demand for our core business,” said Eric M. Green, president, CEO and chair of the West board. “I am extremely proud of the many accomplishments by our global team members, as our company has supplied critical components, solutions and systems to our base and COVID-19-related customers. Though pandemic-related product demand is declining, we continue to see overall demand growth, especially from our biologic customers.”
Green added that West plans to manage its cost structure to address the “ongoing inflationary environment.” It remains committed to a capital spending program to expand its high-value product manufacturing capacity.
West introduced full-year adjusted EPS guidance for between $7.25 and $7.40. It projects revenues between $2.935 billion and $2.96 billion for 2023.
