First Trust Advisors LP Increases Stake in Avantor, Inc. $AVTR

First Trust Advisors LP increased its stake in Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) by 821.2% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,918,378 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,710,131 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP owned approximately 0.28% of Avantor worth $25,821,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Avantor by 119.1% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,187 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 1,189 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Avantor by 36.5% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 15,933,860 shares of the company’s stock valued at $214,470,000 after purchasing an additional 4,264,449 shares during the last quarter. Stanley Capital Management LLC grew its position in Avantor by 32.0% in the second quarter. Stanley Capital Management LLC now owns 1,318,500 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,747,000 after acquiring an additional 320,000 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in shares of Avantor by 214.9% in the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 124,076 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,670,000 after purchasing an additional 84,679 shares during the period. Finally, Blueshift Asset Management LLC increased its position in Avantor by 10.4% during the second quarter. Blueshift Asset Management LLC now owns 38,640 shares of the company’s stock valued at $520,000 after acquiring an additional 3,643 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.08% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Avantor

In other news, Director Sanjeev K. Mehra acquired 350,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 5th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $11.09 per share, for a total transaction of $3,881,500.00. Following the acquisition, the director owned 350,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,881,500. This represents a ∞ increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Gregory L. Summe bought 100,000 shares of Avantor stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 30th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $11.25 per share, with a total value of $1,125,000.00. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 300,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,375,000. The trade was a 50.00% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on AVTR. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on Avantor from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Avantor from $15.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $12.00 target price (down previously from $14.00) on shares of Avantor in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. UBS Group set a $12.00 price objective on Avantor in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Raymond James Financial lowered shares of Avantor from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 4th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $14.42.

Avantor Price Performance

Avantor stock opened at $11.55 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.87 billion, a P/E ratio of -88.81, a P/E/G ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 0.93. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $12.56 and its 200 day moving average price is $12.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 1.49. Avantor, Inc. has a 1 year low of $10.62 and a 1 year high of $23.32.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.23 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $1.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. Avantor had a negative net margin of 1.25% and a positive return on equity of 10.91%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.26 earnings per share. Avantor has set its FY 2025 guidance at 0.880-0.920 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Avantor, Inc. will post 1.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.