Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) Short Interest Down 5.8% in April

Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) was the recipient of a large decrease in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 27,600,000 shares, a decrease of 5.8% from the March 31st total of 29,290,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 5,380,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.1 days.

Avantor Price Performance

Shares of AVTR stock opened at $23.93 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00. The stock has a market cap of $16.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.74, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.37. The business’s fifty day moving average is $25.09 and its 200 day moving average is $22.66. Avantor has a twelve month low of $16.63 and a twelve month high of $26.16.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by $0.02. Avantor had a net margin of 3.79% and a return on equity of 13.15%. The company had revenue of $1.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.68 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.29 EPS. Avantor’s revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Avantor will post 1.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Avantor news, EVP James Bramwell sold 6,203 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.49, for a total transaction of $151,911.47. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 101,143 shares in the company, valued at $2,476,992.07. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.30% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Avantor

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Raymond James & Associates grew its holdings in shares of Avantor by 84.8% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,165,646 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,612,000 after acquiring an additional 534,901 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its position in shares of Avantor by 19.9% during the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 628,189 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,342,000 after purchasing an additional 104,296 shares during the last quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC increased its position in shares of Avantor by 17.6% during the 4th quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 2,283,767 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,430,000 after purchasing an additional 342,452 shares during the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Avantor by 8.4% in the 4th quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 2,508,557 shares of the company’s stock worth $57,269,000 after purchasing an additional 194,031 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted 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 worth $87,049,000 after buying an additional 342,553 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.08% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on AVTR. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Avantor from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Avantor from $25.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Avantor from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on Avantor from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Raymond James raised their price target on Avantor from $22.50 to $26.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $26.71.

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.