Pacific Capital Partners Ltd Reduces Stock Holdings in Avantor, Inc. $AVTR

Key Points

• Pacific Capital Partners Ltd reduced its stake in Avantor, Inc. by 30.3% in Q2, now holding around 652,019 shares, making it their largest position.
• Major institutional investors, including Dodge & Cox and Vanguard Group, have increased their holdings in Avantor, indicating strong institutional interest.
• Analysts have lowered price targets for Avantor, now averaging $15.50, with an overall rating of "Hold" based on recent reports from several banks.

Pacific Capital Partners Ltd lowered its holdings in shares of Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR - Free Report) by 30.3% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 652,019 shares of the company's stock after selling 284,028 shares during the period. Avantor comprises 8.2% of Pacific Capital Partners Ltd's portfolio, making the stock its largest holding. Pacific Capital Partners Ltd owned approximately 0.10% of Avantor worth $8,776,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Avantor by 59.6% during the fourth quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 18,869 shares of the company's stock valued at $398,000 after acquiring an additional 7,048 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE lifted its holdings in shares of Avantor by 85.5% during the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 11,135 shares of the company's stock valued at $180,000 after acquiring an additional 5,133 shares during the period. Stanley Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Avantor by 42.9% during the first quarter. Stanley Capital Management LLC now owns 998,500 shares of the company's stock valued at $16,186,000 after acquiring an additional 300,000 shares during the period. Woodline Partners LP raised its holdings in shares of Avantor by 14.5% in the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 1,380,688 shares of the company's stock valued at $22,381,000 after buying an additional 174,361 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Avantor by 28.0% in the first quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 6,262,052 shares of the company's stock valued at $101,508,000 after buying an additional 1,370,577 shares during the last quarter. 95.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AVTR has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus set a $12.00 price target on Avantor and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Evercore ISI cut their price target on Avantor from $18.00 to $16.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Avantor from $17.00 to $14.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Avantor from $18.00 to $15.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Barclays reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $13.00 price objective (down from $15.00) on shares of Avantor in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $15.50.

Avantor Stock Down 3.0%

Shares of AVTR traded down $0.39 on Friday, hitting $12.48. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,869,974 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,661,647. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $12.90 and its 200-day moving average price is $13.82. Avantor, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $10.82 and a fifty-two week high of $27.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.59, a P/E/G ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 0.98.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.67 billion. Avantor had a net margin of 10.31% and a return on equity of 11.39%. The company's revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.25 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Avantor, Inc. will post 1.06 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Avantor news, CAO Steven W. Eck sold 3,476 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.39, for a total value of $39,591.64. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 55,068 shares in the company, valued at approximately $627,224.52. The trade was a 5.94% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 1.20% 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.