Avantor Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:AVTR)

Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Friday. Stock investors bought 9,071 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 16% compared to the average daily volume of 7,851 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Avantor

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Kintegral Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of Avantor during the 2nd quarter valued at about $514,000. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Avantor during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,353,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in Avantor by 35.1% during the 2nd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,157,855 shares of the company’s stock worth $24,547,000 after buying an additional 300,579 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in Avantor by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,325,329 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,297,000 after buying an additional 35,497 shares during the period. Finally, Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. raised its stake in Avantor by 16.7% during the 2nd quarter. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. now owns 2,902,290 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,529,000 after buying an additional 416,342 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 95.08% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on Avantor from $28.00 to $27.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Citigroup downgraded Avantor from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $23.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Avantor from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 15th. Barclays reduced their target price on Avantor from $28.00 to $25.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on Avantor from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $25.93.

Avantor Price Performance

Avantor stock opened at $25.59 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.61. Avantor has a 52 week low of $16.63 and a 52 week high of $26.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 65.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 1.32. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $22.39 and a 200-day moving average of $23.63.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last issued its earnings results on Friday, July 26th. The company reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.02. Avantor had a return on equity of 13.01% and a net margin of 3.79%. The business had revenue of $1.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Avantor will post 1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Avantor Company Profile

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.