Vanguard Group Inc. Trims Stock Holdings in Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR)

Vanguard Group Inc. decreased its position in Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) by 1.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 64,452,111 shares of the company’s stock after selling 892,473 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 9.49% of Avantor worth $1,648,040,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of AVTR. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Avantor during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $156,455,000. CCLA Investment Management lifted its holdings in Avantor by 147,220.3% in the 1st quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 4,720,144 shares of the company’s stock worth $120,828,000 after buying an additional 4,716,940 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in Avantor in the 4th quarter valued at about $93,433,000. Avidity Partners Management LP purchased a new position in Avantor in the 4th quarter valued at about $48,442,000. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Avantor by 113.0% during the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,497,349 shares of the company’s stock valued at $63,857,000 after acquiring an additional 1,325,026 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.08% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on AVTR. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on Avantor from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 29th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Avantor from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 15th. Evercore ISI cut their price target on shares of Avantor from $28.00 to $27.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on Avantor from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on Avantor from $28.00 to $25.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Avantor currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $25.93.

Avantor Stock Performance

NYSE AVTR traded up $0.25 on Monday, hitting $21.10. The stock had a trading volume of 2,298,754 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,800,827. The company’s 50-day moving average is $22.62 and its two-hundred day moving average is $23.63. The stock has a market cap of $14.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.46, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. Avantor, Inc. has a one year low of $16.63 and a one year high of $26.16.

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

About Avantor

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.