Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) Shares Bought by Steph & Co.

Steph & Co. boosted its position in shares of Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) by 20.3% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 14,130 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,388 shares during the quarter. Steph & Co.’s holdings in Avantor were worth $323,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Raymond James & Associates increased its position in Avantor by 84.8% during the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,165,646 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,612,000 after buying an additional 534,901 shares during the period. DAVENPORT & Co LLC increased its position in Avantor by 17.6% during the fourth quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 2,283,767 shares of the company’s stock worth $52,430,000 after buying an additional 342,452 shares during the period. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Avantor by 8.4% in the fourth quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 2,508,557 shares of the company’s stock valued at $57,269,000 after purchasing an additional 194,031 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Avantor by 9.0% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 4,129,447 shares of the company’s stock valued at $87,049,000 after purchasing an additional 342,553 shares during the period. Finally, State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System increased its holdings in shares of Avantor by 12.7% in the third quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 658,563 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,883,000 after purchasing an additional 74,078 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.08% of the company’s stock.

Avantor Price Performance

AVTR traded down $0.22 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $24.38. 5,696,340 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,732,252. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $24.87 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $22.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.61 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The company has a market capitalization of $16.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.37. Avantor, Inc. has a 1 year low of $16.63 and a 1 year high of $26.16.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The company reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $1.72 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Avantor had a return on equity of 14.11% and a net margin of 4.61%. Avantor’s quarterly revenue was down 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.32 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Avantor, Inc. will post 1.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP James Bramwell sold 6,203 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.49, for a total value of $151,911.47. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 101,143 shares in the company, valued at $2,476,992.07. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 1.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group boosted their target price on Avantor from $25.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Raymond James boosted their target price on Avantor from $22.50 to $26.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Barclays boosted their target price on Avantor from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Avantor from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Avantor from $26.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $26.50.

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.