Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) Lowered to Hold Rating by TD Cowen

TD Cowen lowered shares of Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Monday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has $15.50 price target on the stock.

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on AVTR. Stifel Nicolaus lowered shares of Avantor from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $26.00 to $14.00 in a report on Monday. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Avantor from $23.00 to $18.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Avantor from $33.00 to $31.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 10th. Morgan Stanley set a $15.00 price objective on shares of Avantor and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $25.00 price objective (down previously from $29.00) on shares of Avantor in a report on Friday, January 17th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $19.32.

Avantor Stock Performance

NYSE:AVTR opened at $12.49 on Monday. Avantor has a fifty-two week low of $12.20 and a fifty-two week high of $28.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.51 billion, a PE ratio of 12.01, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a fifty day moving average of $15.91 and a two-hundred day moving average of $19.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a current ratio of 1.07.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $0.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23. Avantor had a net margin of 10.49% and a return on equity of 12.17%. The business had revenue of $1.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.61 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.22 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Avantor will post 1.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP James Bramwell sold 3,758 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.53, for a total transaction of $65,877.74. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 87,379 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,531,753.87. This represents a 4.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Steven W. Eck sold 4,907 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.53, for a total transaction of $86,019.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 40,604 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $711,788.12. This represents a 10.78 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Avantor

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of AVTR. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new stake in shares of Avantor during the third quarter worth $2,586,000. Retirement Systems of Alabama purchased a new stake in shares of Avantor during the third quarter worth $21,365,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Avantor by 146.5% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,628,372 shares of the company’s stock worth $67,996,000 after acquiring an additional 1,562,018 shares during the period. Everence Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Avantor during the fourth quarter worth $555,000. Finally, Central Pacific Bank Trust Division increased its position in shares of Avantor by 44.1% during the fourth quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division now owns 29,400 shares of the company’s stock worth $619,000 after acquiring an additional 9,000 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.08% of the company’s stock.

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.