Is the business good?
How good a business is WST?
West Pharmaceutical Services earns 19% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so the business is worth more the bigger it gets.
19%
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 10 points above what the capital costs: growth creates value
- Operating margin
- 20%
Operating margin · Medical Instruments & Supplies median 5.8% · 12 months to Q1 2026
- Cash conversion
- 0.84×
Cash conversion · 0.66× a year ago · some of the reported profit has not turned into cash yet
- Share count, year on year
- −0.82%
Share count, year on year · flat: no meaningful dilution
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 19% |
| FY2021 | 27% |
| FY2022 | 25% |
| FY2023 | 23% |
| FY2024 | 20% |
| FY2025 | 19% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 36%
- Operating margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 20%
- Net margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 17%
- Free cash flow margin
- 14%
- R&D as % of revenue
- 2.3%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $3.22B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $458M
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $543M
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 19%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion from the cash flow statement.
Medical Instruments & Supplies
Ranks #4 of 27 by Smart Score