Avantor Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:AVTR)

Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Traders bought 19,536 put options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 169% compared to the average daily volume of 7,269 put options.

Institutional Trading of Avantor

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Avantor by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,457,140 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,379,837,000 after purchasing an additional 211,189 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners boosted its stake in shares of Avantor by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 28,561,802 shares of the company’s stock valued at $729,298,000 after buying an additional 624,369 shares during the period. Artemis Investment Management LLP grew its position in shares of Avantor by 14.9% during the first quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP now owns 9,120,083 shares of the company’s stock worth $233,109,000 after buying an additional 1,180,937 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Avantor by 4.4% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 7,099,848 shares of the company’s stock worth $181,544,000 after buying an additional 297,534 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Avantor in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $156,455,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.08% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on AVTR. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on Avantor from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Avantor from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Avantor from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 29th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Avantor from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $26.71.

Avantor Stock Down 0.0 %

NYSE:AVTR opened at $21.59 on Wednesday. Avantor has a 52 week low of $16.63 and a 52 week high of $26.16. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $24.21 and its two-hundred day moving average is $23.78. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 55.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last posted its earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.02. Avantor had a return on equity of 13.01% and a net margin of 3.79%. The firm had revenue of $1.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.29 EPS. Avantor’s revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Avantor will post 1.01 EPS for the current 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.