Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) Raised to Hold at Zacks Research

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) was upgraded by equities researchers at Zacks Research from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on AVTR. UBS Group set a $12.00 price objective on shares of Avantor in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on Avantor from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated a “neutral” rating and set a $12.00 price target (down previously from $14.00) on shares of Avantor in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Raymond James Financial downgraded Avantor from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 4th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Avantor to an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $13.97.

Avantor Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of AVTR opened at $11.46 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $7.81 billion, a P/E ratio of -88.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.92 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 1.49 and a quick ratio of 0.96. Avantor has a 1 year low of $10.62 and a 1 year high of $23.32. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $11.75 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $12.68.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.23 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $1.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. Avantor had a positive return on equity of 10.91% and a negative net margin of 1.25%.Avantor’s quarterly revenue was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.26 EPS. Avantor has set its FY 2025 guidance at 0.880-0.920 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Avantor will post 1.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Sanjeev K. Mehra acquired 350,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $11.09 per share, with a total value of $3,881,500.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 350,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,881,500. This represents a ? increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Gregory L. Summe bought 100,000 shares of Avantor stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 30th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $11.25 per share, for a total transaction of $1,125,000.00. Following the purchase, the director owned 300,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,375,000. This trade represents a 50.00% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 1.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Rise Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Avantor during the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its position in shares of Avantor by 288.4% during the first quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,701 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 1,263 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Avantor by 119.1% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,187 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 1,189 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Wealth Investment Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Avantor during the second quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, FNY Investment Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Avantor in the second quarter worth about $36,000. 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.