Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Acquires Shares of 20,600 Avanos Medical, Inc. $AVNS

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in Avanos Medical, Inc. (NYSE:AVNS) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 20,600 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $289,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its stake in Avanos Medical by 1,596,514.5% during the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 14,896,413 shares of the company’s stock valued at $167,287,000 after buying an additional 14,895,480 shares during the last quarter. Armistice Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Avanos Medical by 28.0% during the 4th quarter. Armistice Capital LLC now owns 3,200,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,936,000 after acquiring an additional 700,000 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Avanos Medical by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,954,785 shares of the company’s stock worth $21,952,000 after acquiring an additional 53,523 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Avanos Medical by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,084,504 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,180,000 after acquiring an additional 16,980 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Avanos Medical by 20.5% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,040,666 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,687,000 after acquiring an additional 176,716 shares during the last quarter. 95.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Avanos Medical from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Avanos Medical from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Avanos Medical from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Reduce”.

Avanos Medical Price Performance

Shares of Avanos Medical stock opened at $24.93 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.48 and a beta of 1.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 2.48. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $24.86 and a 200-day moving average price of $18.25. Avanos Medical, Inc. has a one year low of $9.30 and a one year high of $25.49.

Avanos Medical (NYSE:AVNS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $182.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $170.00 million. Avanos Medical had a positive return on equity of 5.39% and a negative net margin of 10.39%.Avanos Medical’s quarterly revenue was up 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.26 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Avanos Medical, Inc. will post 1.06 EPS for the current year.

About Avanos Medical

Avanos Medical is a global medical technology company that develops and markets a broad portfolio of medical devices intended to improve patient outcomes in hospital, outpatient and post-acute care settings. The company’s products focus on three core therapy areas—pain management, enteral feeding and respiratory care—designed to help clinicians manage post-operative pain, deliver nutrition support and assist breathing for patients across a variety of acute and chronic conditions.

In its pain management segment, Avanos offers both non-opioid drug delivery systems and cryoanalgesia devices, including ambulatory infusion pumps and cooled radiofrequency ablation platforms.