State of Alaska Department of Revenue Lowers Stock Holdings in Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT)

State of Alaska Department of Revenue cut its holdings in Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT) by 9.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 9,845 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,050 shares during the quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue’s holdings in Avient were worth $409,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of AVNT. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Avient in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,313,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Avient by 6.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,802,120 shares of the company’s stock valued at $470,502,000 after buying an additional 583,179 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Avient by 19,776.2% in the first quarter. FMR LLC now owns 564,086 shares of the company’s stock valued at $23,218,000 after buying an additional 561,248 shares in the last quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Avient by 24.6% in the first quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. now owns 1,754,719 shares of the company’s stock valued at $72,224,000 after buying an additional 346,232 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Westfield Capital Management Co. LP raised its holdings in Avient by 56.4% during the first quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 811,610 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,406,000 after purchasing an additional 292,658 shares during the last quarter. 95.48% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Avient Stock Performance

Shares of AVNT stock opened at $41.28 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $40.44 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.37. The stock has a market cap of $3.77 billion, a PE ratio of 49.73, a P/E/G ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 1.53. Avient Co. has a 1 year low of $27.73 and a 1 year high of $43.97. 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 (NYSE:AVNT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The company reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.04. Avient had a return on equity of 9.26% and a net margin of 2.41%. The company had revenue of $719.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $711.87 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.39 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Avient Co. will post 2.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Avient Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 19th were issued a $0.257 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 18th. This represents a $1.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.49%. 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.