VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Increases Stock Position in Avantor, Inc. $AVTR

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al lifted its holdings in shares of Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) by 74.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 168,600 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 71,800 shares during the period. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al’s holdings in Avantor were worth $1,932,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Dodge & Cox grew its position in shares of Avantor by 0.3% during the third quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 117,746,888 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,469,481,000 after acquiring an additional 313,404 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Avantor by 1.8% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,988,977 shares of the company’s stock worth $823,542,000 after acquiring an additional 1,135,279 shares during the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC grew its position in shares of Avantor by 10.8% during the third quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 34,548,129 shares of the company’s stock worth $431,161,000 after acquiring an additional 3,356,861 shares during the last quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. grew its position in shares of Avantor by 12.0% during the fourth quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. now owns 20,500,653 shares of the company’s stock worth $234,937,000 after acquiring an additional 2,189,083 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Avantor by 0.8% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 16,053,368 shares of the company’s stock worth $200,346,000 after acquiring an additional 119,508 shares during the last quarter. 95.08% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Avantor

In other news, Director Simon Dingemans bought 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 1st. The stock was purchased at an average price of $8.14 per share, with a total value of $203,500.00. Following the purchase, the director owned 25,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $203,500. This trade represents a ∞ increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Sanjeev K. Mehra bought 125,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 10th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $8.01 per share, with a total value of $1,001,250.00. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 475,000 shares in the company, valued at $3,804,750. The trade was a 35.71% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders bought 210,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,745,950. 0.28% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AVTR has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Evercore set a $10.00 price objective on shares of Avantor in a research report on Wednesday, February 11th. Morgan Stanley set a $10.00 price objective on shares of Avantor in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Avantor from $8.50 to $7.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Avantor from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $10.50 price objective on shares of Avantor in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $10.82.

Avantor Trading Down 3.8%

NYSE:AVTR opened at $7.64 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $5.21 billion, a PE ratio of -9.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a quick ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 1.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. Avantor, Inc. has a 52-week low of $7.26 and a 52-week high of $15.93. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $7.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $10.04.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $1.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.54 billion. Avantor had a positive return on equity of 9.95% and a negative net margin of 8.42%.The business’s revenue was up .0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.23 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Avantor, Inc. will post 0.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Avantor

Avantor, Inc (NYSE:AVTR) is a global provider of mission-critical products and services to customers in the biopharma, healthcare, education & government, and advanced technologies & applied materials industries. The company delivers essential solutions that support research, development, production and safety applications. Its product portfolio spans from high-purity chemicals and reagents to biologics and cell culture media, as well as lab equipment, consumables and custom manufacturing services.

Avantor’s offerings are organized across two primary segments.