Sifting through countless of stocks in the Health Care Equipment & Supplies industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in STERIS plc, West Pharmaceutical Services or Inc. because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how STERIS plc, West Pharmaceutical Services and Inc. compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About STERIS plc, West Pharmaceutical Services and Inc.

STERIS plc provides infection prevention products and services in the United States, Ireland, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Healthcare, Applied Sterilization Technologies, and Life Sciences. The company offers cleaning chemistries and sterility assurance products, automated endoscope reprocessing system and tracking products, endoscopy accessories, instruments, washers, and sterilizers and other pieces of capital equipment, as well as equipment used directly in the procedure rooms, including surgical tables, lights, equipment management services, and connectivity solutions; and various preventive maintenance programs, repair services, custom process improvement consulting, and outsourced instrument sterile processing, as well as instrument, devices, and endoscope repair and maintenance services. It also provides process controls and monitoring systems, as well as integrated sterilization equipment, such as accelerators, product handling, and automation; and sterilization modalities, product development, materials testing, and process validation, as well as support services for sterilization equipment and control systems comprising installation, preventive maintenance, updates, repairs, and troubleshooting. In addition, the company offers pharmaceutical detergents, cleanroom disinfectants and sterilants, pharmaceutical grade and research sterilizers and washers, sterility assurance and maintenance products, vaporized hydrogen peroxide room decontamination systems and sterilizers, and high purity water and pure steam generators; and preventive maintenance programs and repair services to support the operation of capital equipment. It serves healthcare providers, medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturers, biopharmaceutical manufacturing facilities, and hospitals. The company was formerly known as New STERIS Limited and changed its name to STERIS plc in November 2015. STERIS plc was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Mentor, Ohio.

West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells containment and delivery systems for injectable drugs and healthcare products in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It operates in two segments, Proprietary Products and Contract-Manufactured Products. The Proprietary Products segment offers stoppers and seals for injectable packaging systems; syringe and cartridge components, including custom solutions for the needs of injectable drug applications, as well as administration systems that enhance the safe delivery of drugs through advanced reconstitution, mixing, and transfer technologies; and films, coatings, washing, and vision inspection and sterilization processes and services to enhance the quality of packaging products. This segment also provides drug containment solutions in the form of vials, syringes, and cartridges; and self-injection devices; and a range of integrated solutions, including analytical lab services, pre-approval primary packaging support and engineering development, regulatory expertise, and after-sales technical support. This segment serves biologic, generic, and pharmaceutical drug companies. The Contract-Manufactured Products segment is involved in the design, manufacture, and automated assembly of devices used in surgical, diagnostic, ophthalmic, injectable, and other drug delivery systems, as well as consumer products. This segment primarily serves pharmaceutical, diagnostic, and medical device companies. It sells and distributes its products through its sales force and distribution network, contract sales agents, and regional distributors. West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. was founded in 1923 and is headquartered in Exton, Pennsylvania.

Latest Health Care Equipment & Supplies and STERIS plc, West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. Stock News

As of September 11, 2026, STERIS plc had a $20.5 billion market capitalization, compared to the Health Care Equipment & Supplies median of $385.8 million. STERIS plc’s stock is down 16.9% in 2026, down 7.1% in the previous five trading days and down 13.56% in the past year.

Currently, STERIS plc’s price-earnings ratio is 25.8. STERIS plc’s trailing 12-month revenue is $6.0 billion with a 13.3% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 7.3%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $11.172 per share for the current fiscal year. STERIS plc currently has a 1.3% dividend yield.

As of September 11, 2026, West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. had a $24.4 billion market cap, putting it in the 88th percentile of all stocks. West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc.’s stock is up 25.8% in 2026, up 1% in the previous five trading days and up 35.66% in the past year.

Currently, West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 44.3. West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $3.3 billion with a 17.0% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 13.8%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $8.962 per share for the current fiscal year. West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. currently has a 0.3% dividend yield.

How We Compare STERIS plc, West Pharmaceutical Services and Inc. Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at STERIS plc, West Pharmaceutical Services and Inc.’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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STERIS plc, West Pharmaceutical Services and Inc. Stock Value Grades

Company	Ticker	Value
STERIS plc	STE	D
West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc.	WST	F

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection.

Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade derives from a stock’s value score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are a good value and so on.

STERIS plc has a Value Score of 31, which is Expensive. West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. has a Value Score of 12, which is Ultra Expensive.

The Value Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither STERIS plc, West Pharmaceutical Services or Inc. has a high enough value grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors who are considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolio. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if STERIS plc, West Pharmaceutical Services or Inc. is the better investment when it comes to value.

STERIS plc, West Pharmaceutical Services and Inc. Growth Grades

Company	Ticker	Growth
STERIS plc	STE	A
West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc.	WST	A

The foundation of growth investing is seeking out stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth that is expected to continue into the future.

In order to compute the growth score and assign it a letter grade, the percentile ranks for each of three components‐consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations‐must be determined. These three rank figures are added together, and the sum is ranked against the entire stock universe to arrive at a company’s Growth Score to create an equal distribution of grades.

The companies in the bottom 20% of the stock universe receive Growth Grades of F, considered to be very weak, while those in the top 20% receive A grades, which are considered very strong.

STERIS plc has a Growth Score of 89, which is Very Strong. West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. has a Growth Score of 95, which is Very Strong.

The Growth Grade Winner: It’s a Tie!

Looking at the Growth Grade breakdown above, both STERIS plc, West Pharmaceutical Services and Inc. have a grade of A. For investors who focus solely on a company’s upward growth, further research should be conducted into both companies’ other financial metrics before deciding whether to invest.

STERIS plc, West Pharmaceutical Services and Inc.’s Estimate Revisions Grades

Company	Ticker	Earnings Estimate
STERIS plc	STE	D
West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc.	WST	B

Earnings estimate revisions scores consider the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, positive surprises beget further positive surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

Estimate revisions offer an indication of what analysts are thinking about the short-term prospects of a firm. Estimate revisions are based on the statistical significance of a firm’s last two quarterly earnings surprises and the percentage change in its consensus estimate for the current fiscal year over the past month and past three months.

STERIS plc has a Earnings Estimate Score of 39, which is Negative. West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. has a Earnings Estimate Score of 73, which is Positive.

The Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade Winner: West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc.

As you can clearly see from the Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade breakdown above, West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. has a better Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade than STERIS plc. For those who are specifically looking for companies with better short-term prospects when compared to other companies in the same industry, West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. could be a good stock to invest in. However, it’s important to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Other STERIS plc, West Pharmaceutical Services and Inc. Grades

In addition to Estimate Revisions, Value and Growth, A+ Investor also provides grades for Momentum and Quality.

Momentum grades help uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming.

AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the ranking of key metrics. Specifically, the quality grade is the percentile rank of the composite of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and F-Score.

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether STERIS plc, West Pharmaceutical Services and Inc. pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, STERIS plc, West Pharmaceutical Services or Inc. Stock?

Overall, STERIS plc stock has a Value Score of 31, Growth Score of 89 and Estimate Revisions Score of 39.

West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. stock has a Value Score of 12, Growth Score of 95 and Estimate Revisions Score of 73.

Comparing STERIS plc, West Pharmaceutical Services and Inc.’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.