Investors Buy Large Volume of Put Options on Avantor (NYSE:AVTR)

Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) saw unusually large options trading on Monday. Stock traders acquired 40,011 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 1,066% compared to the average volume of 3,431 put options.

Insider Buying and Selling at Avantor

In related news, Director Gregory L. Summe bought 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 30th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $11.25 per share, for a total transaction of $1,125,000.00. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 300,000 shares in the company, valued at $3,375,000. This represents a 50.00% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Sanjeev K. Mehra purchased 350,000 shares of Avantor stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 5th. The shares were bought at an average price of $11.09 per share, for a total transaction of $3,881,500.00. Following the acquisition, the director owned 350,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,881,500. This trade represents a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 1.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Avantor

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. TD Private Client Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Avantor by 9.2% in the third quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 7,985 shares of the company’s stock valued at $100,000 after acquiring an additional 670 shares in the last quarter. Private Trust Co. NA increased its position in shares of Avantor by 46.2% in the 4th quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 2,769 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 875 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Avantor by 28.1% in the 3rd quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 4,123 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 905 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Avantor by 2.2% during the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 44,325 shares of the company’s stock worth $597,000 after purchasing an additional 959 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. grew its stake in shares of Avantor by 2.5% during the third quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 38,977 shares of the company’s stock worth $532,000 after purchasing an additional 966 shares in the last quarter. 95.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Avantor Stock Performance

Shares of AVTR stock opened at $11.66 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $11.60 and a two-hundred day moving average of $12.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.95 billion, a PE ratio of -89.65, a P/E/G ratio of 4.08 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 1.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. Avantor has a 52 week low of $10.62 and a 52 week high of $23.32.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $1.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. Avantor had a positive return on equity of 10.91% and a negative net margin of 1.25%.The firm’s revenue was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.26 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Avantor will post 1.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Raymond James Financial lowered shares of Avantor from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. Bank of America cut shares of Avantor from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $13.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Avantor to an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Avantor from $15.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Avantor from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Avantor has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $13.60.

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.