AQR Capital Management LLC Has $4.12 Million Stake in Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT)

AQR Capital Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT) by 5.4% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 95,184 shares of the company’s stock after selling 5,467 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC owned approximately 0.10% of Avient worth $4,121,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC lifted its position in shares of Avient by 140.2% in the 2nd quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 56,333 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,459,000 after acquiring an additional 32,882 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. raised its stake in shares of Avient by 39.4% in the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 155,763 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,799,000 after purchasing an additional 44,026 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Avient in the second quarter worth $807,000. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its stake in Avient by 23.7% during the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 8,536 shares of the company’s stock worth $373,000 after buying an additional 1,633 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new stake in Avient in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,089,000. Institutional investors own 95.48% of the company’s stock.

Avient Price Performance

Avient stock opened at $49.14 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $46.90 and a 200 day simple moving average of $44.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.73. The company has a market capitalization of $4.48 billion, a PE ratio of 42.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.47. Avient Co. has a one year low of $27.73 and a one year high of $51.51.

Avient (NYSE:AVNT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $841.40 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.63 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Avient Co. will post 2.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Avient Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.2575 per share. This represents a $1.03 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.10%. This is a boost from Avient’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. Avient’s dividend payout ratio is currently 89.57%.

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 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.