Lazard Asset Management LLC Makes New Investment in Avantor, Inc. $AVTR

Lazard Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 81,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $641,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Avantor during the 4th quarter valued at about $268,584,000. Morgan Stanley raised its position in Avantor by 179.4% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 17,468,418 shares of the company’s stock worth $200,188,000 after purchasing an additional 11,216,565 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Avantor during the fourth quarter worth about $73,322,000. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in Avantor by 122.0% during the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 7,495,095 shares of the company’s stock worth $100,884,000 after purchasing an additional 4,119,522 shares during the period. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Avantor by 10,725.4% during the second quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,540,650 shares of the company’s stock valued at $47,657,000 after purchasing an additional 3,507,943 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.08% of the company’s stock.

Avantor Trading Down 1.1%

AVTR stock opened at $13.21 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $10.66 and a 200 day moving average price of $9.47. Avantor, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $7.26 and a fifty-two week high of $15.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.72, a P/E/G ratio of 10.06 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 1.78 and a quick ratio of 1.18.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.19 by $0.02. Avantor had a positive return on equity of 9.92% and a negative net margin of 8.81%.The company had revenue of $1.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.61 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.24 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up .5% on a year-over-year basis. Avantor has set its FY 2026 guidance at 0.800-0.830 EPS. Analysts expect that Avantor, Inc. will post 0.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price target on Avantor from $9.00 to $14.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Avantor from $10.00 to $14.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Avantor from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, June 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on shares of Avantor in a research report on Friday, June 26th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $10.50 target price for the company. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Avantor from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fifteen have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $12.00.

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.