Vanguard Group Inc. Decreases Stock Position in Avantor, Inc. $AVTR

Vanguard Group Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) by 1.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 64,904,889 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,084,088 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 0.10% of Avantor worth $743,810,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of AVTR. Royal Bank of Canada raised its holdings in Avantor by 104.3% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 203,738 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,302,000 after buying an additional 104,022 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC raised its holdings in Avantor by 40.3% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 17,659 shares of the company’s stock valued at $286,000 after buying an additional 5,075 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in Avantor by 40.2% during the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 40,289 shares of the company’s stock valued at $542,000 after buying an additional 11,543 shares during the period. Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new stake in Avantor during the 2nd quarter valued at $232,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in Avantor by 214.9% during the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 124,076 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,670,000 after buying an additional 84,679 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.08% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Avantor

In other Avantor news, Director Gregory T. Lucier acquired 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 19th. The shares were bought at an average price of $9.16 per share, with a total value of $458,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 50,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $458,000. The trade was a ∞ increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Gregory L. Summe purchased 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 12th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $9.40 per share, for a total transaction of $940,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 400,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,760,000. This represents a 33.33% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Insiders have acquired 275,000 shares of company stock valued at $2,399,250 in the last quarter. 0.28% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Avantor Stock Performance

Shares of Avantor stock opened at $7.97 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $8.14 and its two-hundred day moving average is $10.45. The company has a market capitalization of $5.44 billion, a PE ratio of -9.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.65 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a quick ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 1.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. Avantor, Inc. has a 52 week low of $7.26 and a 52 week high of $15.93.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.17 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.58 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.54 billion. Avantor had a positive return on equity of 9.95% and a negative net margin of 8.42%.Avantor’s quarterly revenue was up .0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.23 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Avantor, Inc. will post 0.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on AVTR shares. Jefferies Financial Group restated an “underperform” rating and set a $8.00 price target on shares of Avantor in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Evercore set a $10.00 price objective on Avantor in a research report on Wednesday, February 11th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $10.00 price objective on Avantor in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Morgan Stanley set a $10.00 price objective on Avantor in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Avantor from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Avantor has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $11.39.

Avantor Profile

Avantor, Inc (NYSE:AVTR) is a global provider of mission-critical products and services to customers in the biopharma, healthcare, education & government, and advanced technologies & applied materials industries. The company delivers essential solutions that support research, development, production and safety applications. Its product portfolio spans from high-purity chemicals and reagents to biologics and cell culture media, as well as lab equipment, consumables and custom manufacturing services.

Avantor’s offerings are organized across two primary segments.