Gabelli Funds LLC Cuts Position in Avantor, Inc. $AVTR

Key Points

• Gabelli Funds LLC cut its Avantor stake by 51.1% in the fourth quarter, leaving it with 181,000 shares valued at about $2.07 million. Despite that sale, institutional ownership remains very high at 95.08% of the stock.
• Analyst sentiment is mixed but mostly cautious: the stock carries an average Hold rating with a $10.82 price target, while Barclays recently lowered its target to $7.00 and assigned an underweight rating. One recent upgrade came from Wall Street Zen, which moved the stock to Buy.
• Avantor shares were trading around $8.11 after rising 3.0%, and the company recently beat quarterly EPS and revenue estimates. Insiders have also been buying shares, including two directors who purchased stock in May.

Gabelli Funds LLC lessened its holdings in Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR - Free Report) by 51.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 181,000 shares of the company's stock after selling 189,237 shares during the period. Gabelli Funds LLC's holdings in Avantor were worth $2,074,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Dodge & Cox increased its stake in shares of Avantor by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 117,746,888 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,469,481,000 after purchasing an additional 313,404 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Avantor by 1.8% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC increased its stake in shares of Avantor by 10.8% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. increased its stake in shares of Avantor by 12.0% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Avantor by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 16,053,368 shares of the company's stock worth $200,346,000 after buying an additional 119,508 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.08% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AVTR has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $10.50 price objective on shares of Avantor in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Avantor from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. Barclays cut their price objective on Avantor from $8.50 to $7.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. Morgan Stanley set a $10.00 price objective on Avantor in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, TD Cowen reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of Avantor in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $10.82.

Avantor Trading Up 3.0%

Shares of Avantor stock opened at $8.11 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.01, a PEG ratio of 4.56 and a beta of 0.94. Avantor, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $7.26 and a fifty-two week high of $15.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.76. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $7.94 and a 200 day moving average of $9.87.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.54 billion. Avantor had a positive return on equity of 9.95% and a negative net margin of 8.42%.The firm's revenue for the quarter was up .0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.23 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Avantor, Inc. will post 0.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Gregory T. Lucier purchased 10,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 8th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $8.32 per share, for a total transaction of $83,200.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 60,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $499,200. This trade represents a 20.00% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Simon Dingemans acquired 25,000 shares of Avantor stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 1st. The stock was bought at an average price of $8.14 per share, for a total transaction of $203,500.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 25,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $203,500. This represents a ∞ increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have bought 160,000 shares of company stock worth $1,287,950 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.28% of the company's stock.

Avantor News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Avantor this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Zacks Research lifted its FY2027 EPS estimate for Avantor to $0.84 from $0.82 and increased FY2028 EPS to $0.91 from $0.84, suggesting improved longer-term earnings potential.
• Positive Sentiment: The firm also raised Q2 2027 EPS to $0.19 from $0.16 and Q4 2027 EPS to $0.23 from $0.22, reinforcing expectations for better profitability further out.
• Neutral Sentiment: Zacks Research maintained a Hold rating on Avantor, indicating the updates were not strong enough to trigger a more bullish stance.
• Neutral Sentiment: Consensus full-year EPS expectations remain at $0.79, so the analyst changes are incremental rather than a major reset in outlook.
• Negative Sentiment: Near-term estimates were cut for FY2026 to $0.78 from $0.81, Q2 2026 to $0.19 from $0.20, Q3 2026 to $0.20 from $0.21, and Q1 2027 to $0.19 from $0.21, which may temper enthusiasm around immediate earnings momentum.

Avantor 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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