Janus Henderson Group PLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR)

Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its position in Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR - Free Report) by 2.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 18,136,206 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 443,501 shares during the quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC owned about 2.66% of Avantor worth $382,131,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in AVTR. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Avantor by 146.5% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,628,372 shares of the company's stock valued at $67,996,000 after acquiring an additional 1,562,018 shares during the period. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Avantor by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. now owns 77,382 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,630,000 after acquiring an additional 3,825 shares during the period. Reinhart Partners LLC. increased its stake in Avantor by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 551,273 shares of the company's stock worth $11,615,000 after buying an additional 20,540 shares during the period. CCLA Investment Management increased its stake in Avantor by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 5,357,703 shares of the company's stock worth $112,940,000 after buying an additional 229,199 shares during the period. Finally, Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Avantor by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC now owns 24,363 shares of the company's stock worth $513,000 after buying an additional 1,496 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.08% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other Avantor news, Director Gregory L. Summe purchased 25,000 shares of Avantor stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $12.00 per share, with a total value of $300,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 50,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at $600,000. This represents a 100.00% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Steven W. Eck sold 4,907 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.53, for a total transaction of $86,019.71. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 40,604 shares of the company's stock, valued at $711,788.12. This represents a 10.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.20% of the company's stock.

Avantor Stock Up 4.3%

Shares of NYSE:AVTR traded up $0.56 during trading on Friday, reaching $13.40. The stock had a trading volume of 22,017,022 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,794,817. Avantor, Inc. has a one year low of $11.82 and a one year high of $28.00. The company has a market capitalization of $9.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.88, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $14.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $18.59.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $0.23 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.23. Avantor had a net margin of 10.49% and a return on equity of 12.17%. The business had revenue of $1.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.61 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.22 EPS. The company's revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Avantor, Inc. will post 1.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AVTR has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of Avantor from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $26.00 to $14.00 in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Avantor from $25.00 to $22.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Avantor from $18.00 to $15.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Avantor from $21.00 to $17.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut shares of Avantor from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $18.88.

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.