River Global Investors LLP Takes $4.16 Million Position in Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT)

River Global Investors LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 100,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,158,000. River Global Investors LLP owned approximately 0.11% of Avient as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in Avient by 14.1% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,819,796 shares of the company’s stock worth $64,275,000 after buying an additional 224,810 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its holdings in Avient by 15.8% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,580,867 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,717,000 after purchasing an additional 215,709 shares during the last quarter. TimesSquare Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Avient by 32.4% in the third quarter. TimesSquare Capital Management LLC now owns 737,577 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,051,000 after purchasing an additional 180,330 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Avient by 1.7% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,334,501 shares of the company’s stock worth $365,015,000 after purchasing an additional 176,273 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Avient by 20.4% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 637,672 shares of the company’s stock worth $22,523,000 after purchasing an additional 108,090 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.48% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AVNT has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Avient from $45.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Avient from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th.

Avient Stock Performance

Shares of AVNT traded up $0.22 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $44.16. 305,432 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 557,661. Avient Co. has a 12-month low of $27.73 and a 12-month high of $44.93. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.19, a P/E/G ratio of 0.91 and a beta of 1.53. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $41.94 and a 200-day moving average price of $38.27.

Avient (NYSE:AVNT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The company reported $0.52 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.04. Avient had a net margin of 2.41% and a return on equity of 9.26%. The company had revenue of $719.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $711.87 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.39 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Avient Co. will post 2.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Avient Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 19th were given a $0.257 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 18th. This represents a $1.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.33%. Avient’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 124.10%.

About Avient

Avient Corporation operates as a formulator of material solutions in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, South America, and Asia. It operates in two segments, Color, Additives and Inks; and Specialty Engineered Materials. The Color, Additives and Inks segment offers custom color and additive concentrates in solid and liquid form for thermoplastics, dispersions for thermosets, and specialty inks; custom-formulated liquid system, such as polyester, vinyl, natural rubber and latex, polyurethane, and silicone; and proprietary inks.