Avantor's (AVTR) "Outperform" Rating Reiterated at Raymond James Financial

Key Points

• Raymond James Financial has reiterated its "outperform" rating for Avantor (AVTR) and set a new price target of $14.00, down from $16.00, indicating a potential upside of 23.51%.
• In recent reports, multiple analysts have downgraded their ratings for Avantor, with the average consensus rating being "Hold" and a price target of $17.05.
• Avantor's recent quarterly earnings report showed a slight revenue decline of 1.1% year-over-year, with earnings per share falling short of expectations.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "outperform" rating reiterated by investment analysts at Raymond James Financial in a note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $14.00 price objective on the stock, down from their previous price objective of $16.00. Raymond James Financial's price target suggests a potential upside of 23.51% from the company's current price.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on AVTR. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on Avantor from $18.00 to $15.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of Avantor from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and reduced their price target for the company from $23.00 to $14.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of Avantor in a research note on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of Avantor from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $26.00 to $14.00 in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut Avantor from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Avantor has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $17.05.

Avantor Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of NYSE AVTR opened at $11.34 on Monday. Avantor has a 1-year low of $10.82 and a 1-year high of $27.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The business's 50 day moving average is $13.37 and its two-hundred day moving average is $15.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.44, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.96.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 1st. The company reported $0.24 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.25 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $1.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.67 billion. Avantor had a return on equity of 11.39% and a net margin of 10.31%. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.25 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Avantor will post 1.06 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Avantor

In other Avantor news, Director Gregory L. Summe purchased 30,000 shares of Avantor stock in a transaction on Friday, May 23rd. The stock was bought at an average cost of $12.50 per share, with a total value of $375,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 100,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,250,000. This represents a 42.86% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders bought a total of 75,000 shares of company stock worth $928,000 over the last three months. Insiders own 1.20% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AVTR. Rise Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Avantor in the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its holdings in shares of Avantor by 288.4% during the 1st quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,701 shares of the company's stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 1,263 shares in the last quarter. Wealthquest Corp purchased a new position in shares of Avantor in the 1st quarter valued at about $34,000. FNY Investment Advisers LLC purchased a new position in Avantor during the second quarter worth approximately $36,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Avantor by 121.6% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,747 shares of the company's stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 2,056 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.08% of the company's stock.

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.

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