Aveanna Healthcare Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:AVAH) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Aveanna Healthcare Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:AVAH) have been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the twelve analysts that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, six have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $10.7778.

AVAH has been the subject of several recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of Aveanna Healthcare from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada upgraded shares of Aveanna Healthcare from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $10.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of Aveanna Healthcare from $9.00 to $11.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. Stephens raised shares of Aveanna Healthcare from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $10.00 to $11.00 in a report on Friday, May 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Aveanna Healthcare in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd.

Aveanna Healthcare Price Performance

Shares of AVAH opened at $9.90 on Friday. Aveanna Healthcare has a 52 week low of $3.73 and a 52 week high of $10.32. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.35. The firm has a market cap of $2.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.39, a PEG ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.89. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $7.90 and a 200-day moving average of $7.61.

Aveanna Healthcare (NASDAQ:AVAH) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 14th. The company reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.13 by $0.05. Aveanna Healthcare had a return on equity of 124.68% and a net margin of 10.37%.The business had revenue of $647.91 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $613.22 million. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Aveanna Healthcare will post 0.68 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Aveanna Healthcare news, major shareholder Paul R. Vigano sold 7,000,000 shares of Aveanna Healthcare stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.24, for a total value of $43,680,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 252,899 shares in the company, valued at $1,578,089.76. The trade was a 96.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder J.H. Whitney Equity Partners V sold 5,842,240 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.24, for a total value of $36,455,577.60. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 13,450,547 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $83,931,413.28. This trade represents a 30.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 31,305,664 shares of company stock valued at $215,555,910. 5.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Aveanna Healthcare by 38.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,577,010 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,564,000 after buying an additional 1,535,351 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Aveanna Healthcare by 17.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,849,057 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,110,000 after acquiring an additional 278,429 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Aveanna Healthcare by 135.9% during the fourth quarter. Nuveen LLC now owns 1,571,308 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,838,000 after acquiring an additional 905,316 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Aveanna Healthcare by 20.9% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,483,265 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,118,000 after acquiring an additional 256,392 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Aveanna Healthcare by 49.5% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,334,374 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,593,000 after acquiring an additional 441,707 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.96% of the company’s stock.

About Aveanna Healthcare

Aveanna Healthcare, Inc (NASDAQ: AVAH) is a national provider of in-home health care services, specializing in pediatric skilled nursing, therapy, and related support for medically complex and chronically ill children. The company delivers a range of clinical and therapeutic solutions designed to enable patients to receive care in the comfort of their own homes, reducing the need for hospital stays and long-term institutional care. Aveanna’s offerings include registered nursing, physical, occupational and speech therapy, behavioral health counseling, and durable medical equipment coordination.

In addition to pediatric home health services, Aveanna operates adult home health and personal care support programs, assisting elderly and disabled adults with daily living activities, medication management, and rehabilitation therapies.