Fifth Third Bancorp Boosts Stake in Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT)

Fifth Third Bancorp raised its position in shares of Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT) by 42.8% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,001 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 300 shares during the quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp’s holdings in Avient were worth $42,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AVNT. Raymond James & Associates lifted its stake in shares of Avient by 22.7% during the first quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 29,947 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,437,000 after purchasing an additional 5,546 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Avient by 2.2% during the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 10,341 shares of the company’s stock worth $496,000 after purchasing an additional 221 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE lifted its stake in shares of Avient by 3.5% during the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 8,862 shares of the company’s stock worth $425,000 after purchasing an additional 297 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp acquired a new position in shares of Avient during the first quarter worth about $110,000. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can lifted its stake in shares of Avient by 9.4% during the first quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 15,146 shares of the company’s stock worth $748,000 after purchasing an additional 1,296 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.48% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Avient from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday.

Avient Trading Up 1.0 %

NYSE:AVNT opened at $42.14 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.82. Avient Co. has a one year low of $27.73 and a one year high of $43.97. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $40.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $37.31. The stock has a market cap of $3.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.53.

Avient (NYSE:AVNT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The company reported $0.52 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.04. Avient had a return on equity of 9.26% and a net margin of 2.41%. The business had revenue of $719.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $711.87 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.39 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Avient Co. will post 2.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Avient Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 19th were paid a $0.257 dividend. This represents a $1.03 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 18th. Avient’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 124.10%.

About Avient

Avient Corporation operates as a formulator of material solutions in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, South America, and Asia. It operates in two segments, Color, Additives and Inks; and Specialty Engineered Materials. The Color, Additives and Inks segment offers custom color and additive concentrates in solid and liquid form for thermoplastics, dispersions for thermosets, and specialty inks; custom-formulated liquid system, such as polyester, vinyl, natural rubber and latex, polyurethane, and silicone; and proprietary inks.