Dodge & Cox Purchases 1,116,953 Shares of Avantor, Inc. $AVTR

Key Points

• Dodge & Cox increased its position in Avantor, Inc. by 1.1%, owning over 100 million shares worth approximately $1.63 billion.
• Several institutional investors, including Vanguard Group and T. Rowe Price, also raised their stakes in Avantor during the first quarter.
• Analysts have expressed skepticism, with firms such as Wells Fargo and Evercore ISI lowering their target prices for Avantor, now averaging around $15.50.

Dodge & Cox raised its holdings in shares of Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR - Free Report) by 1.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 100,262,723 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 1,116,953 shares during the quarter. Dodge & Cox owned about 14.71% of Avantor worth $1,625,259,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its position in shares of Avantor by 10.5% during the fourth quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 6,257 shares of the company's stock valued at $132,000 after purchasing an additional 592 shares during the period. American Trust increased its position in shares of Avantor by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. American Trust now owns 15,198 shares of the company's stock valued at $320,000 after purchasing an additional 658 shares during the period. Nissay Asset Management Corp Japan ADV increased its position in shares of Avantor by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Nissay Asset Management Corp Japan ADV now owns 82,523 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,767,000 after purchasing an additional 857 shares during the period. Portside Wealth Group LLC increased its position in shares of Avantor by 9.0% during the first quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC now owns 10,673 shares of the company's stock valued at $173,000 after purchasing an additional 882 shares during the period. Finally, Signaturefd LLC increased its position in shares of Avantor by 19.8% during the first quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 5,470 shares of the company's stock valued at $89,000 after purchasing an additional 904 shares during the period. 95.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Avantor news, CAO Steven W. Eck sold 3,476 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.39, for a total value of $39,591.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 55,068 shares in the company, valued at $627,224.52. This represents a 5.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 1.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on AVTR. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Avantor from $15.00 to $12.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Avantor from $17.00 to $14.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $12.00 price target on Avantor and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a "hold" rating on shares of Avantor in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price objective on Avantor from $20.00 to $17.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $15.50.

Avantor Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of Avantor stock traded down $0.15 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $13.05. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,430,822 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,865,601. Avantor, Inc. has a 12 month low of $10.82 and a 12 month high of $27.83. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $13.13 and a 200 day moving average of $14.32. The company has a market capitalization of $8.89 billion, a PE ratio of 13.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The company reported $0.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.25 by ($0.01). Avantor had a return on equity of 11.39% and a net margin of 10.31%.The business had revenue of $1.68 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.67 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.25 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Avantor, Inc. will post 1.06 earnings per share for the current year.

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.