West Pharmaceutical Services (WST) RSU sell-vs-hold

Calculator · free · no signup · WST

Sell at vest or hold? Compare after-tax payout from selling West Pharmaceutical Services RSUs at vest vs. holding through the LTCG cliff at 12 months.

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Your vest

pre-IPO? enter price manually

Tax inputs

Hold strategy

1 yr
20%
20%
10.0%

Best after-tax payout — at year 1 yr

$47,709

Sell + invest wins by $4,981 over Hold 1 yr.

Estimates only. Not financial advice.

This vest pushes your top federal rate from 24% to 35%. Hover the Federal value below for the bracket-by-bracket slicing.

Heads-up: under-withholding. Your employer withholds federal tax at the IRS supplemental rate (22.0% on this vest, ≈ $17,600). Your marginal federal rate on this vest is 32.7%, owing $26,171. Expect to settle the $8,571 gap at tax time.

The hidden purchase

Tax was paid at vest either way. Holding is mathematically equivalent to taking $44,509 in after-tax cash and buying $44,509 of WST today.

Most diversification frameworks would advise against a purchase that size in a single name; the right answer depends on your conviction in WST. Holding past one year converts the gain to LTCG.

Sell + invest

Best payout
Vest value (shares × price)$80,000
Federal
State
Medicare−$1,160
Additional Medicare−$720
Market gain over 1 yr at 10.0%$4,451
Cap-gain tax on diversified gain — LTCG (federal + state + NIIT)−$1,251
Net at year 1 yr$47,709

Sell every share at vest; invest the after-tax cash at the market return for 1 yr, then liquidate. Diversified — no single-stock concentration risk.

Hold 1 yr

Vest value (shares × price)$80,000
Vest tax (federal + state + FICA)
Net at year 1 yr$42,728

Sold 444 shares to cover vest tax (net-settled); kept 556 shares 1 yr to qualify for long-term capital gains.

Social Security + Medicare are payroll taxes (collectively called FICA) — they apply because you're still employed at vest.

Both columns are stated in year-1 yr dollars. The sell side compounds at the market return; the hold side compounds at your single-stock expected return after a 20% volatility drag.

Estimates only. Assumes net-settled (sell-to-cover) vesting; double-trigger and pre-IPO RSUs are out of scope. Excludes multi-state moves, AMT interactions on other equity, and 83(b) elections. Not financial advice.

You evaluated one RSU vest. The beta plans every vest of every grant across years, with concentration and AMT in the loop.

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Related calculators: RSU Lot Order Calculator · Stock Concentration Calculator

About West Pharmaceutical Services

West Pharmaceutical Services (WST) is a public Medical Device company, incorporated in Pennsylvania and headquartered in Exton, PA.

Last close: $346.59 per share (as of 2026-08-19).

Equity grants at West Pharmaceutical Services typically include restricted stock units (RSUs).

West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. is a designer and manufacturer of injectable pharmaceutical packaging and delivery systems. Founded in 1923 by Herman O. West and J.R. Wike of Philadelphia, the company is headquartered in Exton, Pennsylvania. In its early years of development, West produced rubber components for packaging injectable drugs, providing a sterile environment for the producers of penicillin and insulin.

Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The company makes the rubber stoppers, seals, and syringe components that sit between an injectable drug and its container, a category most people never see and no drug maker can skip. Components are qualified as part of a drug's regulatory filing, so changing supplier means revisiting an approval, which produces switching costs out of all proportion to the price of the part. Growth has followed the shift toward biologics and self-administered injectables. Manufacturing precision and particulate control define the technical moat. Headquarters are in Exton, Pennsylvania.

Sources: sec.gov · en.wikipedia.org

OptionsAhoy is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by West Pharmaceutical Services.

West Pharmaceutical Services (WST) RSUs vest as ordinary income at the price on vest day. The decision is whether to sell at vest and reinvest, or hold the shares through the 12-month LTCG cliff. This calculator runs both paths through the same after-tax math so you can compare like-for-like.

Example: 500 West Pharmaceutical Services (WST) RSUs vesting at $346.59 per share is $173,295 of ordinary income on vest day. After roughly 32% combined federal + state + FICA (~$55,454), the post-tax share value is ~$117,841. Holding 12 months for long-term capital-gains treatment then only matters for the price change between vest and sale; the ordinary income at vest is already locked in. The calculator runs both paths through the same after-tax math.

All West Pharmaceutical Services tools → · Use the generic RSU Sell-vs-Hold Calculator for any company. Diversifying multiple RSU lots? See the lot-by-lot sell order →

West Pharmaceutical Services equity questions

Should I sell or hold my West Pharmaceutical Services RSUs at vest?
West Pharmaceutical Services restricted stock units (RSUs) are taxed as ordinary income on their value at vest whether or not you sell. The only open decision is what to do with the shares afterward: sell at vest and reinvest, or hold past twelve months for long-term capital-gains treatment on any further gain. The calculator above runs both paths through the same after-tax math so you can compare them directly.
Does West Pharmaceutical Services grant ISOs, NSOs, or RSUs?
Equity compensation at West Pharmaceutical Services typically takes the form of restricted stock units (RSUs). Restricted stock units are taxed as ordinary income when they vest.
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