Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC Grows Stock Position in Avantor, Inc. $AVTR

Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC grew its stake in Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) by 83.0% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 285,419 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 129,480 shares during the period. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC’s holdings in Avantor were worth $3,562,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of AVTR. Dodge & Cox grew its holdings in Avantor by 17.1% during the second quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 117,433,484 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,580,655,000 after acquiring an additional 17,170,761 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Avantor by 1.8% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,988,977 shares of the company’s stock valued at $823,542,000 after acquiring an additional 1,135,279 shares during the period. Greenhaven Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in Avantor in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $228,528,000. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Avantor by 36.5% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 15,933,860 shares of the company’s stock worth $214,470,000 after purchasing an additional 4,264,449 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its stake in shares of Avantor by 13.4% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 15,914,573 shares of the company’s stock worth $214,210,000 after purchasing an additional 1,879,874 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.08% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on AVTR. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated an “underperform” rating and issued a $8.00 target price on shares of Avantor in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Barclays restated an “underweight” rating and set a $8.50 price target on shares of Avantor in a research report on Friday. Robert W. Baird set a $11.00 price objective on shares of Avantor in a report on Thursday, February 12th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $10.50 price objective on shares of Avantor in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Avantor from $13.00 to $11.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Avantor presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $11.80.

Insider Activity at Avantor

In other Avantor news, Director Gregory T. Lucier bought 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 19th. The shares were bought at an average price of $9.16 per share, with a total value of $458,000.00. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 50,000 shares in the company, valued at $458,000. This trade represents a ? increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Gregory L. Summe bought 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 12th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $9.40 per share, for a total transaction of $940,000.00. Following the purchase, the director owned 400,000 shares in the company, valued at $3,760,000. The trade was a 33.33% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 1.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Key Avantor News

Here are the key news stories impacting Avantor this week:

• Neutral Sentiment: Barclays reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $8.50 price target (small upside relative to the current price), signaling limited near-term upside and continued cautious analyst positioning. Barclays Reaffirmation
• Neutral Sentiment: A recent Yahoo Finance piece outlines how analysts are resetting fair-value targets for Avantor, documenting the shift in analyst views but not pointing to an immediate positive catalyst. How The Avantor Story Is Shifting
• Negative Sentiment: Unusually large put-option volume: investors bought ~94,708 puts (up ~1,582% vs. typical), indicating significant bearish positioning or hedging activity that can amplify downside volatility.
• Negative Sentiment: Zacks Research issued a wave of cuts to quarterly and full-year EPS estimates, downgraded multiple forward-quarter forecasts and assigned AVTR a “Strong Sell” / Zacks Rank #5 — a material negative read on near-term fundamentals and sentiment. Zacks Adds AVTR to Strong Sell List

Avantor Trading Down 4.0%

AVTR stock opened at $8.18 on Monday. Avantor, Inc. has a 12-month low of $8.14 and a 12-month high of $18.02. The business’s 50-day moving average is $10.70 and its 200 day moving average is $11.84. The company has a current ratio of 1.78, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The stock has a market cap of $5.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.49, a PEG ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 0.97.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.64 billion. Avantor had a positive return on equity of 10.45% and a negative net margin of 8.09%.The business’s revenue was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.27 earnings per share. Avantor has set its FY 2026 guidance at 0.770-0.830 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Avantor, Inc. will post 1.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Avantor Profile

Avantor, Inc (NYSE:AVTR) is a global provider of mission-critical products and services to customers in the biopharma, healthcare, education & government, and advanced technologies & applied materials industries. The company delivers essential solutions that support research, development, production and safety applications. Its product portfolio spans from high-purity chemicals and reagents to biologics and cell culture media, as well as lab equipment, consumables and custom manufacturing services.

Avantor’s offerings are organized across two primary segments.