GAMMA Investing LLC Takes $47,000 Position in Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR)

GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new position in shares of Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 2,035 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC acquired a new stake in Avantor during the third quarter valued at approximately $207,000. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund raised its position in shares of Avantor by 9.8% during the third quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 159,187 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,356,000 after purchasing an additional 14,200 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its holdings in shares of Avantor by 52.5% during the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 19,015 shares of the company’s stock valued at $401,000 after purchasing an additional 6,543 shares during the last quarter. Xponance Inc. boosted its position in shares of Avantor by 6.3% in the 3rd quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 25,396 shares of the company’s stock valued at $535,000 after purchasing an additional 1,502 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James & Associates increased its stake in Avantor by 22.8% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 630,745 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,296,000 after purchasing an additional 117,257 shares in the last quarter. 95.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Avantor Price Performance

Avantor stock opened at $24.32 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $25.08 and a 200 day simple moving average of $22.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.61 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The company has a market capitalization of $16.52 billion, a PE ratio of 62.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.36. Avantor, Inc. has a one year low of $16.63 and a one year high of $26.16.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.02. Avantor had a net margin of 3.79% and a return on equity of 13.01%. The firm had revenue of $1.68 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.68 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.29 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Avantor, Inc. will post 1.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Avantor news, EVP James Bramwell sold 6,203 shares of Avantor stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.49, for a total value of $151,911.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 101,143 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,476,992.07. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on AVTR shares. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Avantor from $24.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Avantor from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Avantor from $26.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Raymond James upped their price target on Avantor from $22.50 to $26.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Avantor from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $26.71.

About Avantor

Avantor, Inc engages in the provision of mission-critical products and services to customers in the biopharma, healthcare, education and government, advanced technologies, and applied materials industries in the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The company offers materials and consumables, such as purity chemicals and reagents, lab products and supplies, formulated silicone materials, customized excipients, customized single-use assemblies, process chromatography resins and columns, analytical sample prep kits, education and microbiology products, clinical trial kits, peristaltic pumps, and fluid handling tips.