Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Takes $1.06 Million Position in Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new position in Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 25,600 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,064,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its position in shares of Avient by 42.8% in the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,001 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System increased its position in shares of Avient by 1.4% in the third quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 24,634 shares of the company’s stock worth $870,000 after purchasing an additional 333 shares during the last quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in shares of Avient by 139.5% in the third quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,152 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 671 shares during the last quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System increased its position in shares of Avient by 3.3% in the third quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 21,824 shares of the company’s stock worth $771,000 after purchasing an additional 700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LVZ Inc. increased its position in shares of Avient by 11.4% in the fourth quarter. LVZ Inc. now owns 7,306 shares of the company’s stock worth $304,000 after purchasing an additional 749 shares during the last quarter. 95.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have commented on AVNT shares. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Avient from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Avient from $45.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th.

Avient Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE AVNT opened at $43.31 on Wednesday. Avient Co. has a one year low of $27.73 and a one year high of $43.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 1.82 and a quick ratio of 1.37. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $41.27 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $37.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.18, a PEG ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.53.

Avient (NYSE:AVNT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The company reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.04. The firm 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 business’s quarterly revenue was down 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.39 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Avient Co. will post 2.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Avient Announces Dividend

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 dividend of $0.257 per share. This represents a $1.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 18th. Avient’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.