Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Grows Holdings in Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT)

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT) by 3.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,936,318 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 149,283 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned approximately 4.31% of Avient worth $171,818,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Avient by 6.6% in the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 153,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,683,000 after purchasing an additional 9,531 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale purchased a new position in shares of Avient during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $59,000. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. grew its position in shares of Avient by 0.8% during the second quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 408,022 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,810,000 after buying an additional 3,218 shares in the last quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp increased its stake in shares of Avient by 8.7% in the second quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 86,730 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,786,000 after buying an additional 6,947 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Choreo LLC acquired a new stake in Avient in the second quarter valued at $234,000. 95.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Avient from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $49.00 to $52.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 7th.

Avient Price Performance

Shares of AVNT opened at $48.10 on Friday. Avient Co. has a 52 week low of $27.73 and a 52 week high of $49.47. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The firm has a market cap of $4.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.02, a PEG ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 1.47. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $45.97 and a 200-day moving average of $44.13.

Avient (NYSE:AVNT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.76 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $850.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $841.40 million. Avient had a net margin of 3.70% and a return on equity of 10.34%. The firm’s revenue was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.63 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Avient Co. will post 2.65 EPS for the current year.

Avient Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be issued a $0.2575 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.14%. This is a boost from Avient’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. Avient’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 89.57%.

Avient Company Profile

Avient Corporation operates as a formulator of material solutions in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, South America, and Asia. It operates in two segments, Color, Additives and Inks; and Specialty Engineered Materials. The Color, Additives and Inks segment offers custom color and additive concentrates in solid and liquid form for thermoplastics, dispersions for thermosets, and specialty inks; custom-formulated liquid system, such as polyester, vinyl, natural rubber and latex, polyurethane, and silicone; and proprietary inks.