Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) Receives Average Recommendation of "Reduce" from Analysts

Key Points

• Analysts are cautious on Avantor: The stock has a consensus rating of “Reduce” from 16 analysts, with 3 sell ratings, 11 holds, and 2 buys. The average 1-year price target is about $10.57.
• Insiders have been buying shares: Director Sanjeev K. Mehra and Director Gregory T. Lucier recently purchased Avantor stock, and insiders bought a total of 160,000 shares worth about $1.29 million over the last three months.
• Recent earnings topped expectations: Avantor reported $0.17 EPS versus the expected $0.16 and revenue of $1.58 billion, slightly above estimates. However, revenue was flat year over year and the company still posted a negative net margin.

Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR - Get Free Report) has been given a consensus recommendation of "Reduce" by the sixteen analysts that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $10.5667.

A number of research firms have recently commented on AVTR. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Avantor from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, May 30th. Evercore set a $10.00 price objective on shares of Avantor in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Avantor from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Jefferies Financial Group restated an "underperform" rating and set a $8.00 price objective on shares of Avantor in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Avantor from $8.50 to $7.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Sanjeev K. Mehra bought 125,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $8.01 per share, for a total transaction of $1,001,250.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 475,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,804,750. This represents a 35.71% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Gregory T. Lucier bought 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 8th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $8.32 per share, for a total transaction of $83,200.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 60,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at $499,200. The trade was a 20.00% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have bought 160,000 shares of company stock worth $1,287,950. Insiders own 0.28% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Avantor

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dodge & Cox increased its holdings in Avantor by 0.3% during the third quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 117,746,888 shares of the company's stock worth $1,469,481,000 after buying an additional 313,404 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Avantor by 1.8% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,988,977 shares of the company's stock valued at $823,542,000 after purchasing an additional 1,135,279 shares during the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC increased its holdings in shares of Avantor by 10.8% in the third quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 34,548,129 shares of the company's stock valued at $431,161,000 after purchasing an additional 3,356,861 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new position in shares of Avantor in the fourth quarter valued at $268,584,000. Finally, Greenhaven Associates Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Avantor by 12.0% in the fourth quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. now owns 20,500,653 shares of the company's stock valued at $234,937,000 after purchasing an additional 2,189,083 shares during the last quarter. 95.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Avantor Stock Performance

Shares of AVTR stock opened at $9.10 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.76. Avantor has a 52 week low of $7.26 and a 52 week high of $15.93. The company has a market capitalization of $6.22 billion, a P/E ratio of -11.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.21 and a beta of 0.97. The company's 50 day moving average price is $8.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $9.70.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.01. Avantor had a negative net margin of 8.42% and a positive return on equity of 9.95%. The company had revenue of $1.58 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.54 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.23 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up .0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Avantor will post 0.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Avantor Company Profile

Avantor, Inc NYSE: AVTR is a global provider of mission-critical products and services to customers in the biopharma, healthcare, education & government, and advanced technologies & applied materials industries. The company delivers essential solutions that support research, development, production and safety applications. Its product portfolio spans from high-purity chemicals and reagents to biologics and cell culture media, as well as lab equipment, consumables and custom manufacturing services.

Avantor's offerings are organized across two primary segments.

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