Wellington Management Group LLP Decreases Stock Holdings in Avantor, Inc. $AVTR

Key Points

• Wellington Management Group LLP significantly reduced its holdings in Avantor, Inc. by 91.1% in the 1st quarter, dropping from approximately 922,158 shares to just 82,392 shares.
• Avantor's most recent earnings report indicated an EPS of $0.24, which was below analyst expectations of $0.25, with a slight revenue decrease of 1.1% year-over-year.
• Analysts have revised their target prices for Avantor, with notable drops from Evercore ISI and Robert W. Baird, reflecting a more cautious outlook on the stock.

Wellington Management Group LLP lowered its position in Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR - Free Report) by 91.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 82,392 shares of the company's stock after selling 839,766 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP's holdings in Avantor were worth $1,336,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its stake in Avantor by 59.6% in the fourth quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 18,869 shares of the company's stock valued at $398,000 after acquiring an additional 7,048 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE lifted its holdings in shares of Avantor by 85.5% during the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 11,135 shares of the company's stock valued at $180,000 after purchasing an additional 5,133 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its stake in Avantor by 33.6% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 28,746 shares of the company's stock worth $466,000 after buying an additional 7,227 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Avantor by 121.6% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,747 shares of the company's stock worth $61,000 after buying an additional 2,056 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Manhattan West Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Avantor during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,534,000. Institutional investors own 95.08% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AVTR has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price target on Avantor from $20.00 to $17.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 4th. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on shares of Avantor from $18.00 to $16.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Avantor from $19.00 to $16.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a "hold" rating on shares of Avantor in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $13.00 price target (down previously from $15.00) on shares of Avantor in a report 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. According to MarketBeat, Avantor currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $15.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Avantor

In other 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 sale, the chief accounting officer directly 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 1.20% of the company's stock.

Avantor Stock Performance

AVTR stock traded up $0.26 during trading on Thursday, hitting $13.08. 3,963,157 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 10,824,916. Avantor, Inc. has a 1 year low of $10.82 and a 1 year high of $27.83. The company has a market cap of $8.91 billion, a PE ratio of 13.21, a P/E/G ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.98. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $13.11 and its 200 day simple moving average is $14.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 1st. The company reported $0.24 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.25 by ($0.01). Avantor had a return on equity of 11.39% and a net margin of 10.31%.The firm had revenue of $1.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.67 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.25 EPS. Avantor's revenue for the quarter was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Avantor, Inc. will post 1.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.