Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Avantor (NYSE:AVTR)

Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR - Get Free Report) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock investors acquired 6,150 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 131% compared to the typical daily volume of 2,667 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Avantor news, EVP James Bramwell sold 3,758 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.53, for a total value of $65,877.74. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 87,379 shares in the company, valued at $1,531,753.87. The trade was a 4.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Gregory L. Summe acquired 25,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was bought at an average price of $12.00 per share, for a total transaction of $300,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 50,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $600,000. The trade was a 100.00% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Perpetual Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Avantor by 38.7% in the fourth quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 1,766,882 shares of the company's stock worth $37,228,000 after acquiring an additional 493,408 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its holdings in shares of Avantor by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 1,922,368 shares of the company's stock worth $40,504,000 after acquiring an additional 33,692 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Avantor by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,027,636 shares of the company's stock worth $63,792,000 after acquiring an additional 74,735 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Avantor by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 8,069 shares of the company's stock worth $170,000 after acquiring an additional 522 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its holdings in shares of Avantor by 38.1% in the fourth quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 119,063 shares of the company's stock worth $2,509,000 after acquiring an additional 32,838 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.08% of the company's stock.

Avantor Price Performance

AVTR traded up $0.56 on Friday, hitting $13.40. 22,017,022 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,776,945. Avantor has a 12 month low of $11.82 and a 12 month high of $28.00. The business has a 50-day moving average of $14.76 and a two-hundred day moving average of $18.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 0.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.88, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.09.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $0.23 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.23. Avantor had a net margin of 10.49% and a return on equity of 12.17%. The business had revenue of $1.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.61 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.22 earnings per share. Avantor's revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Avantor will post 1.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on AVTR. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Avantor from $22.00 to $18.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Cowen cut shares of Avantor from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of Avantor from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and reduced their target price for the company from $23.00 to $14.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Avantor from $25.00 to $22.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, TD Cowen cut shares of Avantor from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $15.50 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $18.88.

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.