Raymond James & Associates Grows Stake in Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT)

Raymond James & Associates increased its holdings in shares of Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT) by 1.5% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 50,048 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 749 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates’ holdings in Avient were worth $2,080,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Avient by 1.7% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,334,501 shares of the company’s stock worth $365,015,000 after purchasing an additional 176,273 shares in the last quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky boosted its stake in Avient by 92.0% during the third quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 29,493 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,042,000 after buying an additional 14,134 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in Avient by 14.1% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,819,796 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,275,000 after buying an additional 224,810 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its stake in Avient by 10.5% during the third quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 51,681 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,825,000 after buying an additional 4,923 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Comerica Bank boosted its stake in Avient by 62.4% during the third quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 88,068 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,111,000 after buying an additional 33,855 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.48% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Avient from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th.

Avient Price Performance

NYSE:AVNT opened at $41.77 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.33, a PEG ratio of 0.91 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 business has a 50 day simple moving average of $40.68 and a 200-day simple moving average of $37.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 1.82 and a quick ratio of 1.37.

Avient (NYSE:AVNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The company reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $719.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $711.87 million. Avient had a return on equity of 9.26% and a net margin of 2.41%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.39 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Avient Co. will post 2.53 EPS for the current year.

Avient Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 19th were paid a $0.257 dividend. This represents a $1.03 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.46%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 18th. Avient’s payout ratio 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.