Norges Bank Takes Position in Avantor, Inc. $AVTR

Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 6,398,087 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $73,322,000. Norges Bank owned approximately 0.94% of Avantor as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Avantor by 124.8% in the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 1,907,077 shares of the company’s stock valued at $23,800,000 after acquiring an additional 1,058,617 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP lifted its position in shares of Avantor by 1,333.0% in the third quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 246,494 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,076,000 after acquiring an additional 229,293 shares in the last quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. lifted its position in shares of Avantor by 12.0% in the fourth quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. now owns 20,500,653 shares of the company’s stock valued at $234,937,000 after acquiring an additional 2,189,083 shares in the last quarter. London Co. of Virginia purchased a new stake in shares of Avantor in the third quarter worth about $159,669,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Avantor by 0.8% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 16,053,368 shares of the company’s stock worth $200,346,000 after buying an additional 119,508 shares in the last quarter. 95.08% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AVTR has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus set a $10.00 target price on Avantor in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Citigroup decreased their target price on Avantor from $11.00 to $9.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated an “underperform” rating and issued a $8.00 target price on shares of Avantor in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Royal Bank Of Canada initiated coverage on Avantor in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $9.00 target price on the stock. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $10.50 target price on shares of Avantor in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $10.57.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Sanjeev K. Mehra acquired 125,000 shares of Avantor stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $8.01 per share, with a total value of $1,001,250.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 475,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,804,750. The trade was a 35.71% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Simon Dingemans acquired 25,000 shares of Avantor stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The shares were bought at an average cost of $8.14 per share, for a total transaction of $203,500.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 25,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $203,500. The trade was a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have purchased 160,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,287,950 over the last ninety days. 0.28% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Avantor Trading Down 3.7%

Shares of NYSE AVTR opened at $9.17 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $8.18 and its two-hundred day moving average is $9.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 1.76 and a quick ratio of 1.17. Avantor, Inc. has a 1-year low of $7.26 and a 1-year high of $15.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.26 billion, a P/E ratio of -11.31, a PEG ratio of 5.31 and a beta of 0.97.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.01. Avantor had a positive return on equity of 9.95% and a negative net margin of 8.42%.The company had revenue of $1.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.54 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.23 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Avantor, Inc. will post 0.79 EPS for the current year.

Avantor Profile

Avantor, Inc (NYSE:AVTR) is a global provider of mission-critical products and services to customers in the biopharma, healthcare, education & government, and advanced technologies & applied materials industries. The company delivers essential solutions that support research, development, production and safety applications. Its product portfolio spans from high-purity chemicals and reagents to biologics and cell culture media, as well as lab equipment, consumables and custom manufacturing services.

Avantor’s offerings are organized across two primary segments.