DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale Grows Stock Holdings in Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR)

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its holdings in shares of Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) by 58.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 633,520 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 232,784 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale owned approximately 0.09% of Avantor worth $13,241,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in shares of Avantor by 146.1% during the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 217,296 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,961,000 after buying an additional 129,010 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Avantor by 13.2% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,976,265 shares of the company’s stock valued at $90,789,000 after acquiring an additional 463,662 shares in the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Avantor by 20.4% in the fourth quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 34,575 shares of the company’s stock valued at $789,000 after acquiring an additional 5,864 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Avantor in the 4th quarter worth approximately $156,455,000. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Avantor by 35.3% during the 4th quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,863,981 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,385,000 after purchasing an additional 746,624 shares during the period. 95.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup downgraded shares of Avantor from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $30.00 to $23.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Avantor from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Evercore ISI cut their price target on Avantor from $28.00 to $27.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 2nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Avantor from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company began coverage on Avantor in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $30.00 price objective for the company. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Avantor presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $27.40.

Avantor Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AVTR opened at $26.88 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 68.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.32. Avantor, Inc. has a 52 week low of $16.63 and a 52 week high of $28.00. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $24.42 and a 200-day simple moving average of $24.27. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last released its earnings results on Friday, July 26th. The company reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Avantor had a net margin of 5.28% and a return on equity of 12.40%. On average, equities analysts predict that Avantor, Inc. will post 1.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Avantor news, CAO Steven W. Eck sold 3,525 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.06, for a total value of $88,336.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,544 shares in the company, valued at approximately $740,372.64. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.