Raymond James Financial Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Avantor, Inc. $AVTR

Key Points

• Raymond James Financial Inc. reduced its stake in Avantor, Inc. by 9.7%, owning 1,417,653 shares after selling 152,897 shares in the first quarter.
• Avantor's earnings per share for the last quarter was $0.24, missing the consensus estimate of $0.25, while revenues decreased by 1.1% year-over-year.
• Research analysts have mixed ratings on Avantor, with seven analysts rating it a Buy and eight rating it a Hold, maintaining an average target price of $15.50.

Raymond James Financial Inc. lessened its holdings in Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR - Free Report) by 9.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,417,653 shares of the company's stock after selling 152,897 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned 0.21% of Avantor worth $22,980,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Avantor by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,952,926 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,052,887,000 after purchasing an additional 983,172 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Avantor by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 18,136,206 shares of the company's stock valued at $382,131,000 after purchasing an additional 443,501 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Avantor by 19.3% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 11,669,411 shares of the company's stock valued at $189,161,000 after purchasing an additional 1,884,273 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Avantor by 4.1% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 9,232,884 shares of the company's stock valued at $149,667,000 after purchasing an additional 363,981 shares during the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings in shares of Avantor by 48.3% during the 4th quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 9,158,175 shares of the company's stock valued at $192,963,000 after purchasing an additional 2,983,439 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.08% of the company's stock.

Avantor Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of NYSE AVTR opened at $13.2250 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The company has a market cap of $9.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.36, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 0.96. Avantor, Inc. has a 1 year low of $10.82 and a 1 year high of $27.83. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $13.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $14.34.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $1.68 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.67 billion. Avantor had a return on equity of 11.39% and a net margin of 10.31%.The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.25 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Avantor, Inc. will post 1.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Avantor from $15.00 to $12.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Avantor from $20.00 to $17.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 4th. TD Cowen downgraded shares of Avantor from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $15.50 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, April 28th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a "hold" rating on shares of Avantor in a report on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Raymond James Financial set a $14.00 price target on shares of Avantor and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $15.50.

Insider Transactions at Avantor

In other Avantor news, CAO Steven W. Eck sold 3,476 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were 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 owned 55,068 shares of the company's stock, valued at $627,224.52. This trade represents a 5.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.

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