Homestead Advisers Corp Increases Position in Avient Corporation (NYSE:AVNT)

Homestead Advisers Corp increased its stake in shares of Avient Corporation (NYSE:AVNT - Free Report) by 15.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 184,727 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 24,300 shares during the quarter. Homestead Advisers Corp owned about 0.20% of Avient worth $6,864,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new position in shares of Avient during the first quarter worth $230,000. Bailard Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Avient in the first quarter worth about $278,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Avient by 4.2% in the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,522,503 shares of the company's stock worth $56,576,000 after buying an additional 62,022 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in shares of Avient by 20.4% in the first quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,209,305 shares of the company's stock worth $44,938,000 after buying an additional 204,554 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MQS Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Avient in the first quarter worth about $293,000. Institutional investors own 95.48% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on AVNT. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Avient from $39.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Avient from $51.00 to $41.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $46.80.

Avient Trading Up 0.7%

NYSE AVNT traded up $0.25 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $33.82. 191,490 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 670,452. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $34.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.26. The company has a quick ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. Avient Corporation has a 52 week low of $27.86 and a 52 week high of $54.68. The stock has a market cap of $3.10 billion, a PE ratio of 31.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.33.

Avient (NYSE:AVNT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.01. Avient had a return on equity of 10.48% and a net margin of 3.09%. The company had revenue of $826.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $834.90 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.76 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down .3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Avient Corporation will post 2.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Avient Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 8th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 12th will be given a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 12th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.19%. Avient's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 100.93%.

Avient Company Profile

Avient Corporation operates as a formulator of material solutions in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, South America, and Asia. It operates in two segments, Color, Additives and Inks; and Specialty Engineered Materials. The Color, Additives and Inks segment offers custom color and additive concentrates in solid and liquid form for thermoplastics, dispersions for thermosets, and specialty inks; custom-formulated liquid system, such as polyester, vinyl, natural rubber and latex, polyurethane, and silicone; and proprietary inks.