National Pension Service Sells 1,134,596 Shares of Avantor, Inc. $AVTR

Key Points

• The National Pension Service significantly reduced its holdings in Avantor, Inc. by 94.2%, selling 1,134,596 shares during the 1st quarter, leaving it with only 70,104 shares valued at $1,136,000.
• Shares of Avantor, Inc. opened at $12.91 and the company reported a net margin of 10.31% for its last quarter, with quarterly revenue of $1.68 billion.
• Analysts have downgraded their price targets for Avantor, with Royal Bank of Canada lowering its target from $20.00 to $17.00, while JPMorgan decreased its target from $17.00 to $14.00.

National Pension Service trimmed its holdings in Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR - Free Report) by 94.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 70,104 shares of the company's stock after selling 1,134,596 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service's holdings in Avantor were worth $1,136,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of AVTR. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its stake in shares of Avantor by 48.3% in the 4th quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 9,158,175 shares of the company's stock worth $192,963,000 after buying an additional 2,983,439 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Avantor by 19.3% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 11,669,411 shares of the company's stock worth $189,161,000 after buying an additional 1,884,273 shares during the last quarter. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. grew its position in Avantor by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. now owns 4,699,584 shares of the company's stock valued at $99,020,000 after buying an additional 1,801,483 shares during the period. KBC Group NV grew its position in Avantor by 483.7% during the first quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,823,686 shares of the company's stock valued at $29,562,000 after buying an additional 1,511,255 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in Avantor by 24.9% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,841,073 shares of the company's stock valued at $144,142,000 after buying an additional 1,364,175 shares during the period. 95.08% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Avantor

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on AVTR. Cowen lowered shares of Avantor from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on Avantor from $18.00 to $15.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 4th. TD Cowen downgraded Avantor from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $15.50 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Monday, April 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Avantor from $17.00 to $14.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on Avantor from $18.00 to $16.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $15.50.

Avantor Price Performance

AVTR traded up $0.6250 on Friday, hitting $13.1850. 1,619,758 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 10,576,957. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $13.13 and its 200-day simple moving average is $14.54. The firm has a market cap of $8.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.29, a P/E/G ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 0.96. Avantor, Inc. has a one year low of $10.82 and a one year high of $27.83. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR - Get Free Report) last issued its 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). The business had revenue of $1.68 billion for 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 firm's revenue for the quarter was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.25 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate 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.