Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the sixteen ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and twelve have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $26.71.

AVTR has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Avantor from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Raymond James increased their price target on Avantor from $22.50 to $26.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Citigroup increased their price target on Avantor from $24.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Evercore ISI increased their price target on Avantor from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on Avantor from $25.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th.

Avantor Stock Performance

Shares of AVTR opened at $23.94 on Friday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $25.08 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $22.61. The company has a current ratio of 1.61, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00. Avantor has a 12 month low of $16.63 and a 12 month high of $26.16. The company has a market cap of $16.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.37.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The company reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.03. Avantor had a return on equity of 14.11% and a net margin of 4.61%. The business had revenue of $1.72 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.32 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Avantor will post 1.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP James Bramwell sold 6,203 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.49, for a total value of $151,911.47. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 101,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,476,992.07. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 1.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Avantor

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AVTR. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Avantor during the fourth quarter valued at about $156,455,000. Boston Partners raised its holdings in Avantor by 21.4% during the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 28,077,026 shares of the company’s stock valued at $588,362,000 after acquiring an additional 4,948,951 shares during the period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in Avantor during the fourth quarter valued at about $93,433,000. Artemis Investment Management LLP raised its holdings in Avantor by 70.0% during the third quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP now owns 7,639,813 shares of the company’s stock valued at $160,980,000 after acquiring an additional 3,144,879 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Avantor by 56.5% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,591,898 shares of the company’s stock valued at $138,957,000 after purchasing an additional 2,381,154 shares in the last quarter. 95.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.