California Public Employees Retirement System Raises Position in Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT)

California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its stake in Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT) by 1.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 167,028 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 2,099 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Avient were worth $6,943,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in Avient by 14.1% during the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,819,796 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,275,000 after acquiring an additional 224,810 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Avient by 15.8% in the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,580,867 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,717,000 after buying an additional 215,709 shares during the last quarter. TimesSquare Capital Management LLC increased its position in Avient by 32.4% during the 3rd quarter. TimesSquare Capital Management LLC now owns 737,577 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,051,000 after buying an additional 180,330 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Avient by 1.7% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,334,501 shares of the company’s stock valued at $365,015,000 after buying an additional 176,273 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Avient by 20.4% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 637,672 shares of the company’s stock worth $22,523,000 after acquiring an additional 108,090 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.48% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Avient Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:AVNT opened at $44.15 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $4.03 billion, a PE ratio of 53.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.53. 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 $41.84 and a 200 day moving average of $38.19. Avient Co. has a 12-month low of $27.73 and a 12-month high of $44.93.

Avient (NYSE:AVNT) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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. Avient had a return on equity of 9.26% and a net margin of 2.41%. The business had revenue of $719.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $711.87 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.39 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Avient Co. will post 2.55 EPS for the current year.

Avient Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 19th were given a dividend of $0.257 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 18th. This represents a $1.03 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.33%. 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.