Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) Short Interest Up 24.1% in June

Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest during the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 17,670,000 shares, a growth of 24.1% from the May 31st total of 14,240,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 5,410,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.3 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AVTR has been the subject of several recent research reports. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on Avantor from $28.00 to $27.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Avantor from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Avantor from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on Avantor from $28.00 to $25.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Avantor currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $26.29.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Avantor

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. American Trust grew its stake in shares of Avantor by 45.1% in the first quarter. American Trust now owns 13,261 shares of the company’s stock worth $339,000 after acquiring an additional 4,121 shares during the last quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Avantor by 10.5% in the first quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 723,084 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,489,000 after acquiring an additional 68,541 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its stake in shares of Avantor by 146.7% in the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 400,736 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,205,000 after acquiring an additional 238,285 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners grew its stake in shares of Avantor by 2.2% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 28,561,802 shares of the company’s stock worth $729,298,000 after acquiring an additional 624,369 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Avantor in the first quarter worth $249,000. 95.08% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Avantor Stock Down 0.9 %

AVTR stock traded down $0.19 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $20.58. The stock had a trading volume of 5,348,864 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,824,606. The firm has a market cap of $13.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.32. The business has a 50-day moving average of $23.66 and a two-hundred day moving average of $23.81. Avantor has a 52-week low of $16.63 and a 52-week high of $26.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.61 and a quick ratio of 1.05.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.68 billion. Avantor had a return on equity of 13.01% and a net margin of 3.79%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.29 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Avantor will post 1.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Avantor Company Profile

Avantor, Inc engages in the provision of mission-critical products and services to customers in the biopharma, healthcare, education and government, advanced technologies, and applied materials industries in the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The company offers materials and consumables, such as purity chemicals and reagents, lab products and supplies, formulated silicone materials, customized excipients, customized single-use assemblies, process chromatography resins and columns, analytical sample prep kits, education and microbiology products, clinical trial kits, peristaltic pumps, and fluid handling tips.