Venturi Wealth Management LLC Raises Position in Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR)

Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) by 504.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,572 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,320 shares during the quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Avantor were worth $160,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its position in shares of Avantor by 13.8% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 27,507 shares of the company’s stock valued at $580,000 after acquiring an additional 3,342 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers increased its position in shares of Avantor by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 1,922,368 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,504,000 after acquiring an additional 33,692 shares during the last quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System increased its position in shares of Avantor by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 337,351 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,108,000 after acquiring an additional 9,813 shares during the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System increased its position in shares of Avantor by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 188,900 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,980,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC increased its position in shares of Avantor by 13.0% during the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 12,584 shares of the company’s stock valued at $265,000 after acquiring an additional 1,451 shares during the last quarter. 95.08% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on AVTR. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on Avantor from $28.00 to $26.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $24.00 price objective (down from $26.00) on shares of Avantor in a report on Monday, February 10th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Avantor from $33.00 to $31.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 10th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $25.00 price objective (down from $29.00) on shares of Avantor in a report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Avantor from $28.00 to $25.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Avantor presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $25.92.

Avantor Price Performance

Avantor stock opened at $17.31 on Friday. Avantor, Inc. has a one year low of $17.14 and a one year high of $28.00. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $20.96 and a 200-day moving average price of $22.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 0.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.64, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.28.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.01. Avantor had a return on equity of 12.17% and a net margin of 10.49%. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.22 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Avantor, Inc. will post 1.06 EPS for the current 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.