Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Raises Stock Holdings in Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. increased its position in Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) by 13.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 240,470 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 27,694 shares during the period. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in Avantor were worth $5,490,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AVTR. Mesirow Institutional Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Avantor during the 4th quarter worth about $2,842,000. Raymond James & Associates grew its position in Avantor by 84.8% during the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,165,646 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,612,000 after purchasing an additional 534,901 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its position in Avantor by 19.9% during the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 628,189 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,342,000 after purchasing an additional 104,296 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its position in Avantor by 146.1% during the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 217,296 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,961,000 after purchasing an additional 129,010 shares during the period. Finally, DAVENPORT & Co LLC grew its position in Avantor by 17.6% during the 4th quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 2,283,767 shares of the company’s stock worth $52,430,000 after purchasing an additional 342,452 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.08% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on AVTR. Evercore ISI increased their price target on Avantor from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on Avantor from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Barclays raised their target price on Avantor from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on Avantor from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $26.71.

Avantor Price Performance

Avantor stock traded down $0.34 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $21.68. The company had a trading volume of 5,868,764 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,749,082. The company has a market capitalization of $14.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.59, a P/E/G ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.35. Avantor, Inc. has a 12-month low of $16.63 and a 12-month high of $26.16. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $24.37 and its 200-day simple moving average is $23.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.61 and a quick ratio of 1.05.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. Avantor had a net margin of 3.79% and a return on equity of 13.01%. Avantor’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.29 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Avantor, Inc. will post 1.01 EPS for the current year.

Avantor 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.