First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. Buys New Holdings in Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR)

First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. purchased a new position in Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 9,817 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $224,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AVTR. Raymond James & Associates lifted its holdings in shares of Avantor by 84.8% in the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,165,646 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,612,000 after purchasing an additional 534,901 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Avantor by 19.9% during the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 628,189 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,342,000 after buying an additional 104,296 shares during the last quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC increased its position in shares of Avantor by 17.6% during the fourth quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 2,283,767 shares of the company’s stock worth $52,430,000 after acquiring an additional 342,452 shares in the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Avantor by 8.4% in the 4th quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 2,508,557 shares of the company’s stock worth $57,269,000 after acquiring an additional 194,031 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Avantor by 9.0% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 4,129,447 shares of the company’s stock worth $87,049,000 after acquiring an additional 342,553 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.08% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Avantor news, EVP James Bramwell sold 6,203 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.49, for a total value of $151,911.47. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 101,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,476,992.07. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Avantor Price Performance

AVTR stock opened at $24.27 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $25.11 and a 200-day moving average of $22.80. The company has a current ratio of 1.61, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 62.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.36. Avantor, Inc. has a 12 month low of $16.63 and a 12 month high of $26.16.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AVTR has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Avantor from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Avantor from $24.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on Avantor from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Avantor from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their target price on Avantor from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Avantor has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $26.71.

Avantor Profile

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.