Kentucky Retirement Systems Buys New Shares in Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR)

Kentucky Retirement Systems bought a new stake in Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 46,299 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $751,000.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of AVTR. Castleview Partners LLC grew its position in Avantor by 56.1% during the 1st quarter. Castleview Partners LLC now owns 27,537 shares of the company's stock worth $446,000 after purchasing an additional 9,891 shares during the last quarter. Norris Perne & French LLP MI lifted its stake in shares of Avantor by 91.1% in the 1st quarter. Norris Perne & French LLP MI now owns 956,625 shares of the company's stock worth $15,507,000 after acquiring an additional 455,963 shares during the period. ORG Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Avantor by 62.4% in the 1st quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC now owns 8,497 shares of the company's stock worth $134,000 after acquiring an additional 3,264 shares during the period. State of Alaska Department of Revenue lifted its stake in shares of Avantor by 2.8% in the 1st quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 79,797 shares of the company's stock worth $1,293,000 after acquiring an additional 2,200 shares during the period. Finally, Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC lifted its stake in shares of Avantor by 43.9% in the 1st quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 34,186 shares of the company's stock worth $554,000 after acquiring an additional 10,433 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.08% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AVTR has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Avantor from $21.00 to $17.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Avantor from $18.00 to $15.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Avantor from $22.00 to $18.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Stifel Nicolaus cut shares of Avantor from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $26.00 to $14.00 in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Avantor from $25.00 to $22.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $18.88.

Insider Buying and Selling at Avantor

In other news, Director Joseph R. Massaro purchased 8,100 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 29th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $12.30 per share, for a total transaction of $99,630.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 35,038 shares in the company, valued at $430,967.40. This represents a 30.07% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Gregory L. Summe purchased 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were purchased at an average price of $12.65 per share, with a total value of $253,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 70,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $885,500. This represents a 40.00% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last three months, insiders acquired 83,100 shares of company stock worth $1,027,630. 1.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Avantor Price Performance

NYSE:AVTR traded down $0.19 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $13.55. 12,777,145 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,347,582. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 1.12. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $13.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $16.82. Avantor, Inc. has a 1 year low of $11.82 and a 1 year high of $28.00. The company has a market cap of $9.23 billion, a PE ratio of 13.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.04.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $0.23 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.23. Avantor had a net margin of 10.70% and a return on equity of 11.93%. The firm had revenue of $1.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.61 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.22 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Avantor, Inc. will post 1.06 EPS for the current year.

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.