Avantor Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:AVTR)

Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) saw unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock investors purchased 17,661 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 177% compared to the typical daily volume of 6,382 put options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on AVTR. 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 note on Thursday, April 4th. UBS Group upped their price target on Avantor from $25.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Avantor from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Avantor from $26.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Raymond James upped their price target on Avantor from $22.50 to $26.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $26.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Avantor news, EVP James Bramwell sold 6,203 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.49, for a total transaction of $151,911.47. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 101,143 shares in the company, valued at $2,476,992.07. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Park Place Capital Corp increased its position in shares of Avantor by 18.2% in the third quarter. Park Place Capital Corp now owns 3,039 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,000 after buying an additional 467 shares in the last quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. increased its position in shares of Avantor by 1.3% in the first quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 36,082 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,220,000 after buying an additional 480 shares in the last quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC increased its position in shares of Avantor by 3.2% in the third quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 18,598 shares of the company’s stock valued at $392,000 after buying an additional 579 shares in the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its position in shares of Avantor by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 30,215 shares of the company’s stock valued at $690,000 after buying an additional 591 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Advisor Networks LLC increased its position in shares of Avantor by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 15,881 shares of the company’s stock valued at $363,000 after buying an additional 622 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.08% of the company’s stock.

Avantor Trading Down 1.3 %

NYSE:AVTR opened at $25.53 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $24.77 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $22.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.18, a PEG ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.61. Avantor has a 1 year low of $16.63 and a 1 year high of $26.16.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The company reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. Avantor had a return on equity of 14.11% and a net margin of 4.61%. Avantor’s revenue was down 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.32 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Avantor will post 1.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.