Wedge Capital Management L L P NC Acquires 33,126 Shares of Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR)

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC boosted its stake in shares of Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR - Free Report) by 15.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 249,104 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 33,126 shares during the quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC's holdings in Avantor were worth $5,687,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AVTR. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Avantor by 0.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,457,140 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,379,837,000 after purchasing an additional 211,189 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners lifted its stake in shares of Avantor by 21.4% during the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 28,077,026 shares of the company's stock valued at $588,362,000 after buying an additional 4,948,951 shares during the period. Robeco Schweiz AG lifted its stake in shares of Avantor by 8.1% during the third quarter. Robeco Schweiz AG now owns 8,154,000 shares of the company's stock valued at $171,886,000 after buying an additional 607,500 shares during the period. Artemis Investment Management LLP lifted its stake in shares of Avantor by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP now owns 7,939,146 shares of the company's stock valued at $181,251,000 after buying an additional 299,333 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Avantor by 56.5% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,591,898 shares of the company's stock valued at $138,957,000 after buying an additional 2,381,154 shares during the period. 95.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on AVTR shares. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Avantor from $25.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on shares of Avantor from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Avantor from $26.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Avantor from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Avantor from $22.50 to $26.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Avantor presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $26.71.

Avantor Stock Performance

NYSE:AVTR traded down $0.19 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $25.46. The stock had a trading volume of 4,832,503 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,702,781. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.45, a P/E/G ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $25.03 and a 200-day simple moving average of $22.55. Avantor, Inc. has a 52 week low of $16.63 and a 52 week high of $26.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.61, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The company reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.72 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Avantor had a net margin of 4.61% and a return on equity of 14.11%. Avantor's quarterly revenue was down 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.32 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Avantor, Inc. will post 1.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Avantor

In other Avantor news, EVP James Bramwell sold 6,203 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.49, for a total transaction of $151,911.47. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 101,143 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,476,992.07. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 1.30% 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.