Short Interest in Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) Decreases By 5.8%

Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) saw a large decline in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 27,600,000 shares, a decline of 5.8% from the March 31st total of 29,290,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 5,380,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.1 days.

Avantor Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of AVTR stock opened at $23.93 on Tuesday. Avantor has a 52-week low of $16.63 and a 52-week high of $26.16. The stock has a market cap of $16.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.74, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.37. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $25.09 and its 200-day moving average is $22.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.61.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.68 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.68 billion. Avantor had a net margin of 3.79% and a return on equity of 13.15%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.29 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Avantor will post 1.01 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Avantor

In other news, EVP James Bramwell sold 6,203 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.49, for a total transaction of $151,911.47. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 101,143 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,476,992.07. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Avantor

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Avantor by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,457,140 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,379,837,000 after buying an additional 211,189 shares during the period. Boston Partners raised its holdings in shares of Avantor by 21.4% during the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 28,077,026 shares of the company’s stock worth $588,362,000 after buying an additional 4,948,951 shares in the last quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP lifted its position in shares of Avantor by 14.9% during the 1st quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP now owns 9,120,083 shares of the company’s stock worth $233,109,000 after buying an additional 1,180,937 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Schweiz AG boosted its stake in Avantor by 8.1% in the third quarter. Robeco Schweiz AG now owns 8,154,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $171,886,000 after buying an additional 607,500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Avantor in the fourth quarter valued at about $156,455,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.08% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on AVTR. Citigroup raised 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. Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Avantor from $22.50 to $26.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on Avantor from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Avantor from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Avantor from $26.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $26.71.

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.