West Pharmaceutical Services (WST) Fell on Disappointing Guidance

Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Mid Cap Fund” first quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the first quarter, the fund’s Investor Class fund ARTMX returned -7.40%, Advisor Class fund APDMX posted a return of -7.37%, and Institutional Class fund APHMX returned -7.35%, compared to a -7.12% return for the Russell Midcap Growth Index. US equities achieved solid Q4 gains, concluding a strong year. After a period of strong growth stock performance in 2023 and 2024, value stocks gained the lead in Q1 2025. In a risk-averse environment, investors shifted towards lower-volatility equities, especially in the utilities and consumer staples sectors, alongside those with higher dividend yields. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.

In its first-quarter 2025 investor letter, Artisan Mid Cap Fund highlighted stocks such as West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST). West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) designs, manufactures, and sells containment and delivery systems for injectable drugs and healthcare products. The one-month return of West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) was -4.41%, and its shares lost 42.94% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On May 1, 2025, West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) stock closed at $210.26 per share with a market capitalization of $15.11 billion.

Artisan Mid Cap Fund stated the following regarding West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:

"Among our top detractors were West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST), Deckers and Marvell Technology. West reported earnings results that were ahead of Street estimates, but shares declined due to disappointing forward guidance. The company’s outlook for its core injectable drug packaging component business was positive. However, we think two negative surprises will likely hurt its 2025 results. First, the company is experiencing margin pressures due to higher-than-expected production costs of its on-body drug pump offering. Second, the company decided to walk away from some lower-margin continuous glucose monitoring contract manufacturing relationships. We are disappointed that these two less strategic businesses are clouding the attractive prospects for West’s core franchise. We have maintained our position while increasing our scrutiny of the company’s path to reaccelerating progress."

West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 16 hedge fund portfolios held West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) at the end of the fourth quarter, compared to 15 in the third quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

In another article, we covered West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE:WST) and shared the list of worst performing stocks in the S&P 500 so far in 2025. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

READ NEXT: Michael Burry Is Selling These Stocks and A New Dawn Is Coming to US Stocks.

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