Investors Purchase Large Volume of Put Options on Avantor (NYSE:AVTR)

Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) saw unusually large options trading on Friday. Traders bought 94,708 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 1,582% compared to the typical daily volume of 5,630 put options.

Avantor Trading Down 4.0%

NYSE AVTR opened at $8.18 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.78, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. Avantor has a 1-year low of $8.14 and a 1-year high of $18.02. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $10.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $11.86. The company has a market capitalization of $5.58 billion, a PE ratio of -10.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 0.97.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.01. Avantor had a positive return on equity of 10.45% and a negative net margin of 8.09%.The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.27 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. Avantor has set its FY 2026 guidance at 0.770-0.830 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Avantor will post 1.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Avantor

In other news, Director Gregory L. Summe bought 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 12th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $9.40 per share, with a total value of $940,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 400,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,760,000. This represents a 33.33% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Gregory T. Lucier bought 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 19th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $9.16 per share, for a total transaction of $458,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 50,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $458,000. This trade represents a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Avantor

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. TD Private Client Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Avantor by 9.2% in the third quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 7,985 shares of the company’s stock worth $100,000 after buying an additional 670 shares during the last quarter. Private Trust Co. NA raised its position in Avantor by 46.2% during the fourth quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 2,769 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 875 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its stake in Avantor by 28.1% in the third quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 4,123 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,000 after acquiring an additional 905 shares during the last quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. lifted its stake in Avantor by 2.5% in the third quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 38,977 shares of the company’s stock valued at $532,000 after acquiring an additional 966 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in Avantor by 2.7% in the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 37,078 shares of the company’s stock worth $499,000 after acquiring an additional 979 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.08% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus set a $10.00 target price on shares of Avantor in a report on Thursday, February 12th. TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Avantor in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Avantor from $13.00 to $11.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Barclays restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $8.50 target price on shares of Avantor in a report on Friday. Finally, Bank of America lowered Avantor from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $13.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $11.80.

Key Headlines Impacting Avantor

Here are the key news stories impacting Avantor this week:

• Neutral Sentiment: Barclays reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $8.50 price target (small upside relative to the current price), signaling limited near-term upside and continued cautious analyst positioning. Barclays Reaffirmation
• Neutral Sentiment: A recent Yahoo Finance piece outlines how analysts are resetting fair-value targets for Avantor, documenting the shift in analyst views but not pointing to an immediate positive catalyst. How The Avantor Story Is Shifting
• Negative Sentiment: Unusually large put-option volume: investors bought ~94,708 puts (up ~1,582% vs. typical), indicating significant bearish positioning or hedging activity that can amplify downside volatility.
• Negative Sentiment: Zacks Research issued a wave of cuts to quarterly and full-year EPS estimates, downgraded multiple forward-quarter forecasts and assigned AVTR a “Strong Sell” / Zacks Rank #5 — a material negative read on near-term fundamentals and sentiment. Zacks Adds AVTR to Strong Sell List

Avantor Company Profile

Avantor, Inc (NYSE:AVTR) is a global provider of mission-critical products and services to customers in the biopharma, healthcare, education & government, and advanced technologies & applied materials industries. The company delivers essential solutions that support research, development, production and safety applications. Its product portfolio spans from high-purity chemicals and reagents to biologics and cell culture media, as well as lab equipment, consumables and custom manufacturing services.

Avantor’s offerings are organized across two primary segments.