Creative Planning Increases Position in Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT)

Creative Planning raised its holdings in shares of Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT) by 35.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 35,545 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,378 shares during the period. Creative Planning’s holdings in Avient were worth $1,789,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in AVNT. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of Avient by 2.1% in the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 12,877 shares of the company’s stock worth $559,000 after buying an additional 259 shares in the last quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Avient by 3.1% in the 1st quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,145 shares of the company’s stock worth $397,000 after acquiring an additional 276 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Avient by 35.4% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,098 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,000 after acquiring an additional 287 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC boosted its stake in Avient by 21.5% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,637 shares of the company’s stock valued at $82,000 after purchasing an additional 290 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in Avient by 81.6% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 663 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 298 shares during the last quarter. 95.48% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Avient Stock Up 1.9 %

AVNT stock opened at $48.92 on Tuesday. Avient Co. has a fifty-two week low of $27.73 and a fifty-two week high of $51.51. The business’s 50-day moving average is $48.28 and its two-hundred day moving average is $45.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.97. The company has a market cap of $4.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.52, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.47.

Avient (NYSE:AVNT) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.04. Avient had a return on equity of 10.34% and a net margin of 3.70%. The company had revenue of $850.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $841.40 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.63 earnings per share. Avient’s revenue was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Avient Co. will post 2.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Avient Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a $0.27 dividend. This is an increase from Avient’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.21%. Avient’s dividend payout ratio is currently 81.10%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AVNT. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded Avient from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Avient from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Avient from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $49.00 to $52.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Avient from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Avient has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $54.50.

Avient 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.