West Pharmaceutical Stock On Track for Best Day Ever After Earnings

The injectable medicine company raised its full-year earnings and revenue expectations. (Dreamstime)

West Pharmaceutical Services stock was soaring Thursday after the maker of injectable medicines reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings and raised its full-year guidance.

The company reported adjusted earnings of $1.84 a share for the second quarter, surpassing analysts’ consensus estimate of $1.51, according to FactSet. Net sales totaled $766.5 million, compared to Wall Street’s call for $726.1 million.

West Pharmaceutical stock was climbing 24% on Thursday, putting it on track for the strongest-ever single-day percentage increase, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The stock was the top performer in the S&P 500 .

The company now projects full-year adjusted earnings of $6.65 to $6.85 a share and net sales between $3.04 billion and $3.06 billion, up from previous ranges of $6.15 to $6.35 a share and $2.945 billion to $2.975 billion, respectively.

“The improved performance was concentrated in higher margin products, which drove strong margin expansion in the quarter,” said CEO Eric Green, who also noted that the company’s GLP-1 eslatomer business was one reason for the earnings beat.

GLP-1 elastomer products accounted for 8% of second-quarter revenue, the company said.

Write to Nate Wolf at nate.wolf@barrons.com