Mackenzie Financial Corp Buys New Shares in Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT)

Mackenzie Financial Corp purchased a new position in shares of Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 5,623 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $234,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fifth Third Bancorp raised its position in shares of Avient by 42.8% in the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,001 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the period. NBC Securities Inc. purchased a new position in Avient in the third quarter valued at about $136,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC acquired a new position in shares of Avient during the third quarter worth about $204,000. Kure Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Avient in the third quarter worth about $210,000. Finally, LVZ Inc. grew its stake in shares of Avient by 11.4% in the fourth quarter. LVZ Inc. now owns 7,306 shares of the company’s stock valued at $304,000 after buying an additional 749 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.48% of the company’s stock.

Avient Stock Performance

Avient stock opened at $43.22 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.82, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $41.51 and a 200-day moving average of $37.97. The stock has a market cap of $3.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.53. Avient Co. has a 52 week low of $27.73 and a 52 week high of $43.97.

Avient (NYSE:AVNT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The company reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $719.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $711.87 million. Avient had a net margin of 2.41% and a return on equity of 9.26%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.39 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Avient Co. will post 2.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Avient Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 19th were issued a dividend of $0.257 per share. This represents a $1.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.38%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 18th. Avient’s dividend payout ratio is presently 124.10%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AVNT has been the subject of several recent research reports. Oppenheimer increased their price objective 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. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Avient from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th.

Avient Profile

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.