Davis Rea LTD. Buys New Stake in Avantor, Inc. $AVTR

Davis Rea LTD. bought a new stake in shares of Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 25,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $336,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of AVTR. 1832 Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in Avantor by 89.8% during the first quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 18,127,204 shares of the company’s stock valued at $293,842,000 after acquiring an additional 8,578,493 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its stake in Avantor by 53.2% during the first quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 14,034,699 shares of the company’s stock valued at $227,502,000 after acquiring an additional 4,876,524 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Avantor by 19.3% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 11,669,411 shares of the company’s stock valued at $189,161,000 after acquiring an additional 1,884,273 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV grew its stake in Avantor by 483.7% during the first quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,823,686 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,562,000 after acquiring an additional 1,511,255 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clarkston Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in Avantor by 17.8% during the first quarter. Clarkston Capital Partners LLC now owns 9,591,950 shares of the company’s stock valued at $155,486,000 after purchasing an additional 1,446,125 shares during the last quarter. 95.08% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Steven W. Eck sold 3,476 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.39, for a total value of $39,591.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 55,068 shares in the company, valued at approximately $627,224.52. This trade represents a 5.94% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AVTR has been the subject of several research reports. Raymond James Financial set a $14.00 price objective on shares of Avantor and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Avantor from $19.00 to $16.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $12.00 price objective on shares of Avantor and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Avantor from $17.00 to $14.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on shares of Avantor from $18.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Avantor has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $15.65.

Avantor Price Performance

Avantor stock opened at $13.41 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $12.79 and a 200-day moving average price of $13.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.14 billion, a PE ratio of 13.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.41 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. Avantor, Inc. has a 12-month low of $10.82 and a 12-month high of $26.14.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last released its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The company reported $0.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.25 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $1.68 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.67 billion. Avantor had a return on equity of 11.39% and a net margin of 10.31%.Avantor’s revenue was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.25 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Avantor, Inc. will post 1.06 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.