Brokerages Set Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT) Price Target at $54.00

Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Buy” from the five analysts that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $54.00.

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on AVNT shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of Avient from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Avient from $59.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Avient from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th.

Institutional Trading of Avient

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP boosted its stake in shares of Avient by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 1,522,656 shares of the company’s stock worth $76,620,000 after acquiring an additional 63,138 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Avient by 288.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 26,138 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,315,000 after purchasing an additional 19,401 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of Avient by 22.4% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 608,621 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,626,000 after purchasing an additional 111,489 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Avient by 48.5% in the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 30,868 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,553,000 after buying an additional 10,088 shares during the period. Finally, Signaturefd LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Avient by 58.7% in the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 865 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 320 shares during the period. 95.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Avient Price Performance

Shares of AVNT opened at $43.45 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $3.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.74, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.51. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $41.97 and a 200 day moving average price of $46.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.88 and a quick ratio of 1.42. Avient has a 12 month low of $37.63 and a 12 month high of $54.68.

Avient (NYSE:AVNT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The company reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.49. Avient had a net margin of 5.23% and a return on equity of 10.44%. On average, research analysts forecast that Avient will post 2.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Avient Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 4th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.49%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 18th. Avient’s payout ratio is 59.02%.

About Avient

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.