Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) was the target of a large growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 29,290,000 shares, a growth of 6.6% from the March 15th total of 27,470,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 5,900,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.0 days.

Avantor Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AVTR opened at $24.38 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.61. The company has a market cap of $16.54 billion, a PE ratio of 50.79, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.37. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $24.89 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $22.42. Avantor has a fifty-two week low of $16.63 and a fifty-two week high of $26.16.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Avantor news, EVP James Bramwell sold 6,203 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.49, for a total value of $151,911.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 101,143 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,476,992.07. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Avantor

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Dodge & Cox raised its position in Avantor by 360.4% during the fourth quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 61,196,331 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,397,112,000 after acquiring an additional 47,904,427 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Avantor by 32.5% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 76,325,881 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,609,713,000 after acquiring an additional 18,711,696 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Avantor during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $156,455,000. Steadfast Capital Management LP purchased a new position in Avantor during the first quarter valued at approximately $106,228,000. Finally, Boston Partners raised its position in Avantor by 21.4% during the third 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.08% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AVTR has been the topic of several recent research reports. Evercore ISI increased their price target on Avantor from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. UBS Group increased 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. Raymond James increased 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. Barclays increased their price target on Avantor from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on Avantor from $24.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $26.50.

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.