Avantor Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:AVTR)

Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) saw unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Stock traders bought 15,013 put options on the company. This is an increase of 115% compared to the average daily volume of 6,993 put options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Avantor by 0.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,457,140 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,379,837,000 after acquiring an additional 211,189 shares during the period. First Hawaiian Bank boosted its stake in Avantor by 156.8% in the 4th quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 90,703 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,071,000 after purchasing an additional 55,377 shares during the period. Dfpg Investments LLC grew its holdings in Avantor by 7.1% in the 4th quarter. Dfpg Investments LLC now owns 36,169 shares of the company’s stock valued at $796,000 after buying an additional 2,408 shares in the last quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC increased its position in Avantor by 24.5% during the 4th quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 23,162 shares of the company’s stock worth $505,000 after buying an additional 4,564 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Trust N.A. acquired a new stake in shares of Avantor during the fourth quarter worth $595,000. 95.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Avantor from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Avantor from $28.00 to $25.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 28th. Citigroup cut shares of Avantor from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $23.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Avantor from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Evercore ISI decreased their price target on Avantor from $28.00 to $27.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $25.93.

Avantor Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of AVTR traded up $0.14 on Monday, hitting $20.94. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,965,998 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,749,687. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.32. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $22.99 and its 200-day moving average price is $23.68. Avantor has a fifty-two week low of $16.63 and a fifty-two week high of $26.16.

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