Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) Rating Increased to Hold at Royal Bank Of Canada

Royal Bank Of Canada upgraded shares of Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) to a hold rating in a report published on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Other analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Avantor in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $10.00 price objective on shares of Avantor in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Zacks Research raised shares of Avantor from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Avantor from $11.00 to $9.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $10.50 price objective on shares of Avantor in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $10.82.

Avantor Stock Performance

Shares of AVTR stock opened at $7.64 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $5.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.43, a P/E/G ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.76. Avantor has a 52 week low of $7.26 and a 52 week high of $15.93. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $7.99 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $10.04.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.17 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $1.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.54 billion. Avantor had a negative net margin of 8.42% and a positive return on equity of 9.95%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.23 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Avantor will post 0.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Avantor news, Director Sanjeev K. Mehra purchased 125,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were bought at an average price of $8.01 per share, with a total value of $1,001,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 475,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,804,750. This trade represents a 35.71% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Gregory T. Lucier purchased 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 8th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $8.32 per share, for a total transaction of $83,200.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 60,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $499,200. This trade represents a 20.00% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Insiders have acquired a total of 210,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,745,950 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.28% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Avantor

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Dodge & Cox raised its position in shares of Avantor by 0.3% in the third quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 117,746,888 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,469,481,000 after purchasing an additional 313,404 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 1,135,279 shares during the period. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC raised its position in shares of Avantor by 10.8% in the third quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 34,548,129 shares of the company’s stock valued at $431,161,000 after purchasing an additional 3,356,861 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP bought a new stake in shares of Avantor in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $268,584,000. Finally, Greenhaven Associates Inc. raised its position in shares of Avantor by 12.0% in the fourth quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. now owns 20,500,653 shares of the company’s stock valued at $234,937,000 after purchasing an additional 2,189,083 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 95.08% of the company’s stock.

Avantor Company 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.