Janus Henderson Group PLC Decreases Stock Position in Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR)

Janus Henderson Group PLC decreased its position in shares of Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) by 2.8% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 14,257,000 shares of the company’s stock after selling 417,225 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC’s holdings in Avantor were worth $364,550,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in shares of Avantor by 84.8% during the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,165,646 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,612,000 after buying an additional 534,901 shares during the last quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC bought a new position in Avantor during the 4th quarter valued at $228,000. Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its stake in Avantor by 125.3% during the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,248 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 694 shares during the last quarter. Norris Perne & French LLP MI grew its holdings in Avantor by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Norris Perne & French LLP MI now owns 467,070 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,663,000 after acquiring an additional 2,084 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Veracity Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Avantor in the 4th quarter worth about $816,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.08% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Avantor

In other Avantor news, insider Christophe Couturier 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 30th. The was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AVTR has been the topic of several research analyst reports. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Avantor from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Avantor from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on Avantor from $28.00 to $27.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Avantor from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $31.00 price target on shares of Avantor in a research report on Monday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $27.00.

Avantor Stock Performance

AVTR traded up $1.40 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $27.65. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 11,482,278 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,993,731. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $22.42 and a 200 day simple moving average of $23.67. The company has a current ratio of 1.61, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.78 billion, a PE ratio of 67.29, a PEG ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 1.32. Avantor, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $16.63 and a fifty-two week high of $27.66.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. Avantor had a return on equity of 12.52% and a net margin of 5.28%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.29 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Avantor, Inc. will post 1 EPS for the current year.

Avantor 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.