Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) Shares Up 12.1%

Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR)’s stock price rose 12.1% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $25.67 and last traded at $25.57. Approximately 2,199,063 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 68% from the average daily volume of 6,785,116 shares. The stock had previously closed at $22.82.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on AVTR. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on Avantor from $28.00 to $27.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on Avantor from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on Avantor from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 29th. Barclays reduced their price objective on Avantor from $28.00 to $25.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 28th. Finally, Citigroup downgraded Avantor from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $30.00 to $23.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Avantor currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $25.93.

Avantor Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $17.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.32. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $22.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $23.60. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by $0.02. Avantor had a return on equity of 13.01% and a net margin of 3.79%. The business had revenue of $1.68 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.68 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.29 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Avantor, Inc. will post 1 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Avantor during the second quarter worth about $2,353,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of Avantor by 35.1% in the second quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,157,855 shares of the company’s stock valued at $24,547,000 after acquiring an additional 300,579 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in shares of Avantor by 1.6% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,325,329 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,297,000 after acquiring an additional 35,497 shares during the last quarter. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. raised its stake in shares of Avantor by 16.7% in the second quarter. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. now owns 2,902,290 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,529,000 after acquiring an additional 416,342 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in shares of Avantor by 1,830.3% in the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,467 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 1,391 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.08% of the company’s stock.

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.