Does West Pharmaceutical Services (WST) Have a Long Runway for Growth?

Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Growth Fund” fourth quarter 2022 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the fourth quarter, the fund gained 11.93% (Institutional Shares) compared to a 4.13% return for the Russell 2000 Growth Index and a 7.56% return for the S&P 500 Index. Favourable stock selection led the fund to generate strong absolute and relative performance. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2022.

Baron Growth Fund highlighted stocks like West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) in the Q4 2022 investor letter. Headquartered in Exton, Pennsylvania, West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) is a manufacturer of healthcare products and injectable drug packaging. On February 21, 2023, West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) stock closed at $306.68 per share. One-month return of West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) was 17.74%, and its shares lost 14.21% of their value over the last 52 weeks. West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) has a market capitalization of $22.704 billion.

Baron Growth Fund made the following comment about West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) in its Q4 2022 investor letter:

“West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) is the leading provider of components and systems for the packaging and delivery of injectable drugs. The stock fell on lowered full-year guidance and third quarter sales and earnings that missed consensus estimates. The company cited capacity constraints related to transitioning from manufacturing products for COVID vaccines to other products experiencing strong demand. Management expects these issues to resolve in early 2023, and we continue to believe West has a long runway for durable growth.”

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West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 41 hedge fund portfolios held West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 39 in the previous quarter.

We discussed West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) in another article and shared the list of dividend stocks that beat the market last five years. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2022 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.