Vanguard Group Inc. Sells 1,084,088 Shares of Avantor, Inc. $AVTR

Key Points

• Vanguard Group Inc. cut its stake in Avantor by 1.6% in Q4, selling 1,084,088 shares and ending the period with 64,904,889 shares — roughly a 9.52% ownership valued at $743.81 million.
• Company insiders have been buying: Director Sanjeev K. Mehra purchased 125,000 shares at $8.01 and Director Gregory L. Summe bought 100,000 shares at $9.40, with insiders acquiring 275,000 shares (~$2.4M) in the past 90 days.
• Analysts' consensus is a Hold with an average price target of $11.39, although several firms have recently trimmed targets (e.g., Wells Fargo to $14, Barclays to $7, Jefferies $8).

Vanguard Group Inc. cut its stake in shares of Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR - Free Report) by 1.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 64,904,889 shares of the company's stock after selling 1,084,088 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 9.52% of Avantor worth $743,810,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH grew its stake in shares of Avantor by 34.0% during the 4th quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH now owns 219,378 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,576,000 after acquiring an additional 55,670 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its stake in shares of Avantor by 50.1% during the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 202,691 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,323,000 after acquiring an additional 67,677 shares during the period. Private Trust Co. NA grew its stake in shares of Avantor by 46.2% during the 4th quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 2,769 shares of the company's stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 875 shares during the period. CWM LLC grew its stake in shares of Avantor by 434.4% during the 4th quarter. CWM LLC now owns 15,684 shares of the company's stock valued at $180,000 after acquiring an additional 12,749 shares during the period. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Avantor by 114.0% during the 4th quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 7,938 shares of the company's stock valued at $91,000 after acquiring an additional 4,229 shares during the period. 95.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Avantor

In other news, Director Sanjeev K. Mehra acquired 125,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $8.01 per share, with a total value of $1,001,250.00. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 475,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,804,750. The trade was a 35.71% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Gregory L. Summe acquired 100,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 12th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $9.40 per share, for a total transaction of $940,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 400,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,760,000. This represents a 33.33% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have bought 275,000 shares of company stock valued at $2,399,250 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.28% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on AVTR. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Avantor from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated an "underperform" rating and set a $8.00 price objective on shares of Avantor in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. 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. Zacks Research upgraded Avantor from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, TD Cowen reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of Avantor in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $11.39.

Avantor Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of AVTR opened at $7.97 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.65 and a beta of 0.94. Avantor, Inc. has a 1 year low of $7.26 and a 1 year high of $15.93. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $8.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $10.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 1.76 and a quick ratio of 1.17.

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

About Avantor

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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