West's Q2 2026 sales rose 13.8% to $872.3M and diluted EPS 18.1% to $2.15, led by 29% organic growth in biologics/GLP-1 components; full-year guidance was raised, but Q3 reported growth is guided to just 2–4% as the SmartDose line exits.
Revenue
$872M
+13.8% YoY
Net income
$154M
+16.8% YoY
Diluted EPS
$2.15
+18.1% YoY
Operating margin
20.5%
How WST compares with Health Care peers
Figure
WST
Peer median
Rank
Revenue growth (YoY)
+13.8%
+7.3%
10th of 53
Operating margin
20.5%
15.1%
19th of 53
EPS growth (YoY)
+18.1%
+15.1%
20th of 48
Rank 1 = fastest revenue growth, highest operating margin, fastest EPS growth. Peers are the other Health Care companies with a 2026 report on this site, each at its latest period we've analyzed; fiscal calendars differ, so periods are not always the same months.
West Pharmaceutical Services makes the rubber stoppers, seals, plungers and syringe and injector components that go on vials and pens of injectable drugs. In the second quarter of 2026 its sales rose 13.8% to $872.3 million and diluted EPS rose 18.1% to $2.15. Almost all of the growth came from one place: its premium "high-value" components for biologic drugs and GLP-1 weight-loss and diabetes drugs. The contract-manufacturing side of the business was close to flat, and a May cyberattack cost it about $7 million of sales. Management raised its full-year sales and adjusted EPS guidance. Part of the quarter was flattered by customers stocking up on a device line (SmartDose 3.5mL) that West sold to AbbVie in July, and the company's own third-quarter guidance shows reported growth slowing to 2–4%.
At a glance
Biologics sales +29.2% organic ($374.8M): sales of components for biologic drugs, which include GLP-1s, grew about twice as fast as the company overall. They are now 52% of the core Proprietary Products segment.
Proprietary Products gross margin 42.6%, up 2.5 points: more of what West sold was higher-priced product, and it raised prices. This is what lifted company-wide profit.
Operating cash flow of $213.9M in the first half, versus $292.8M of net income: cash lagged profit because receivables grew by $144.5M (excluding currency effects) in six months. Meanwhile $454.3M went into buybacks.
The numbers
Metric
Q2 2026
Q2 2025
YoY Change
Net sales
$872.3M
$766.5M
+13.8%
Organic sales growth (excl. currency)
12.7%
—
—
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High-value products (HVP components + delivery devices) share of sales
63.7%
59.5%
+4.2 pts
Proprietary Products organic growth
15.5%
—
—
"Organic" growth removes the effect of exchange-rate moves (and of acquisitions or divestitures), so it shows how much the underlying business grew. Currency added 1.1 points to reported growth this quarter. HVP share is our own calculation from the segment tables: ($424.1M + $131.2M) / $872.3M, against ($355.2M + $101.2M) / $766.5M a year ago.
Where the growth came from
West has two segments. Proprietary Products (83% of sales) sells West's own designed components and devices. West Vantage (17% of sales) was called "Contract-Manufactured Products" until this year. It assembles devices and combination products to other companies' designs. The name changed in Q1 2026; the segment's contents did not.
Proprietary Products line
Q2 2026 sales
Reported growth
Organic growth
HVP Components
$424.1M
+19.4%
+18.4%
HVP Delivery Devices
$131.2M
+29.6%
+29.2%
Standard Products
$167.3M
+2.4%
+0.7%
Segment total
$722.6M
+16.6%
+15.5%
"High-value products" (HVP) are West's premium versions of its basic stoppers and seals: coated, washed, ready-to-use and more tightly inspected. They carry higher prices and margins than the standard parts. According to the 10-Q, HVP components added about 11 points of the segment's 15.5% organic growth. The filing attributes this to "continued strong customer demand for both Biologics and GLP-1 products as well as sales price increases." The CEO also named customers upgrading to HVP to meet Annex 1. Annex 1 is the EU's tightened rulebook for sterile drug manufacturing, and it pushes drugmakers toward cleaner, pre-sterilized components.
By customer type, Biologics grew 29.2% organically, Generics 6.7% and Pharma (traditional small-molecule drugs) only 1.6%. Standard Products were essentially flat at +0.7%. The business is splitting in two: biologic and GLP-1 demand is growing quickly, and the rest is near zero.
Price did part of the work. Of the $97.3M of organic sales growth, $30.3M came from price increases and $67.0M from volume and mix. Price alone therefore added about 4 points of the 12.7% organic growth.
The SmartDose pull-forward. HVP Delivery Devices grew 29.2% organically. The 10-Q says this was "driven primarily by customer demand for our self-injection devices, in particular SmartDose 3.5mL in advance of the July 2026 transaction closing." West agreed in December 2025 to sell the SmartDose 3.5mL on-body injector business and its facilities to AbbVie for $112.5M. Some of Q2's device growth is therefore a one-time stock-up on a product West no longer owns. The line brought in $30M in Q3 2025 and $55M in the second half of 2025, and it drops out of the numbers from Q3 on.
West Vantage sales grew just 2.0% reported and 0.8% organic. The segment's gross margin fell from 17.5% to 14.2% and its operating profit fell 27.5% to $12.9M. The 10-Q blames "inefficiencies associated with production downtime related to the Company's May 2026 cyber incident, as well as inflationary pressures on our plant spend," and puts the lost revenue at about $7M. The company says the attack, in which data was stolen and systems were encrypted, has been contained and operations have fully recovered.
Takeaway: West's profit growth this quarter depends on one thing: premium components for biologic and GLP-1 drugs. Biologics sales rose 29% organically and pushed the core segment's gross margin up 2.5 points, while Pharma, Standard Products and West Vantage together grew about 1%. The raised guidance is a bet that this mix keeps shifting. Q3's own outlook (2–4% reported growth once the SmartDose sales disappear) shows how much of Q2's 13.8% was the premium-mix engine and how much was temporary.
What the headline numbers hide
Cash lagged profit. First-half operating cash flow was $213.9M, 73% of the $292.8M net income. In the first half of 2025 it was $306.5M, well above net income. Working-capital changes took $188.9M of cash, against $4.0M a year earlier. The 10-Q says this was "due primarily to fluctuations in working capital and increased incentive payments." Receivables rose to $712.0M from $574.4M at year-end, which the company attributes to higher sales late in the quarter. Inventory barely moved ($447.4M vs $443.9M). Free cash flow (operating cash flow minus capital spending) was $128.0M for the half. It was flattered by lower capital spending: $85.9M, down from $146.5M.
Buybacks exceeded free cash flow. West bought back 1.76M shares for $454.3M in the first half, at an average $258.03 each. That is about 3.5 times free cash flow. Cash fell from $791.3M to $435.8M. Debt is still low at $202.9M, so this was a choice to run down cash, not a strain on the balance sheet. It can't continue at this pace without using up the cash pile.
GAAP vs adjusted. Adjusted EPS ($2.37) was $0.22 above GAAP ($2.15). The company excluded $18.3M of pre-tax "unallocated items," against $1.6M a year ago:
$6.9M of one-off professional fees, including legal matters and the May cyber incident
$6.4M of M&A costs, mainly for the SmartDose sale
a $3.5M write-down of an investment
$1.5M of restructuring
The adjusted operating margin rose 2.3 points; the GAAP margin rose only 0.4 points. The gap is real cost, but most of it is tied to identifiable events that should not repeat.
What drove EPS growth. Pre-tax income rose 14.7%. Net income rose 16.8%, helped by a lower tax rate (17.9% vs 19.2%, which the filing puts down to "favorable changes in our geographic mix of earnings"). At last year's tax rate, net income would have been about $2M lower. Diluted shares fell 1.7% (71.3M vs 72.5M), which lifted EPS growth from 16.8% to 18.1%. Roughly 3 points of the 18% EPS growth came from a lower tax rate and buybacks. The rest came from operations.
One item worked against earnings. Net interest income fell from $3.5M to $1.2M, mainly because less interest was capitalized now that big construction projects are finishing. That is a small but lasting cost as capital spending winds down.
Stock-based compensation rose to $10.9M from $7.4M. The filing ties the increase to better performance metrics and mark-to-market charges. It sits in corporate costs and is not excluded from adjusted figures.
Guidance: raised, with a sharp slowdown built into Q3
Previous (April)
Now (July)
FY2026 net sales
$3.295B–$3.350B
$3.345B–$3.380B
FY2026 organic growth
—
10.0%–11.0%
FY2026 adjusted diluted EPS
$8.40–$8.75
$8.85–$9.05
FY2026 capital spending
$250M–$275M
unchanged
The sales midpoint rose by $40M (+1.2%) and the adjusted EPS midpoint by $0.375 (+4.4%). EPS guidance was raised more than sales guidance, which shows management expects the margin gains to last. GAAP EPS guidance of $9.01–$9.26 is above the adjusted range. That is because it includes an expected $0.54–$0.59 per-share gain on the SmartDose sale, which adjusted EPS excludes.
Q3 guidance is sales of $820M–$835M, up 1.9%–3.8% reported and 7.0%–8.9% organic, with adjusted EPS of $2.14–$2.24. Two things explain why reported growth drops from 13.8% to low single digits. First, the $30M of SmartDose sales in Q3 2025 is gone. Second, currency turns from a tailwind into roughly a 1-point headwind. Taking full-year guidance minus first-half results and Q3 guidance, the implied Q4 is about $808M–$828M of sales and $2.11–$2.41 of adjusted EPS. That also sits below Q2's run rate.
Our read
Q2 shows what West earns when its premium biologics and GLP-1 components grow fast: gross margin of 37.7% and an adjusted operating margin of 22.6%, both well above a year ago. The main question for the second half is whether HVP Components keep growing in the high teens once the Annex 1 upgrade wave and GLP-1 stocking even out. That line, not the headline total, is the one to watch in Q3. Two secondary signs will show whether this quarter's weak spots were temporary: West Vantage's margin recovering after the cyber incident, and receivables coming back in line with sales so that cash conversion returns toward net income. Pharma (+1.6%) and Standard Products (+0.7%) show no growth outside the biologics theme. So a slowdown in GLP-1 or biologics orders would hit results with little else to offset it.
Source: West's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 (filed July 23, 2026), and the Q2 2026 earnings release (Form 8-K Exhibit 99.1) for guidance.