Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) Shares Gap Down to $25.15

Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) gapped down prior to trading on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $25.15, but opened at $23.91. Avantor shares last traded at $23.77, with a volume of 2,616,535 shares traded.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AVTR has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Avantor from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Avantor from $26.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Avantor from $25.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Avantor from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Raymond James upped their target price on shares of Avantor from $22.50 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Avantor currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $26.71.

Avantor Trading Down 4.8 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $16.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.37. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $25.08 and its 200 day moving average is $22.62. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.02. Avantor had a net margin of 4.61% and a return on equity of 14.11%. The business had revenue of $1.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.29 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Avantor, Inc. will post 1.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Avantor

In related news, EVP James Bramwell sold 6,203 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.49, for a total transaction of $151,911.47. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 101,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,476,992.07. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Avantor

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AVTR. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Avantor in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $156,455,000. Boston Partners lifted its position in shares of Avantor by 21.4% in the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 28,077,026 shares of the company’s stock valued at $588,362,000 after acquiring an additional 4,948,951 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Avantor in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $93,433,000. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Avantor by 56.5% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,591,898 shares of the company’s stock valued at $138,957,000 after acquiring an additional 2,381,154 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Avidity Partners Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Avantor in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $48,442,000. Hedge funds and other 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.