North Star Asset Management Inc. Boosts Stock Position in Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR)

North Star Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) by 8.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 236,582 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 19,407 shares during the period. North Star Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Avantor were worth $4,985,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Dodge & Cox boosted its holdings in shares of Avantor by 44.9% during the fourth quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 99,145,770 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,089,001,000 after purchasing an additional 30,727,673 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Avantor by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,969,754 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,347,843,000 after purchasing an additional 1,211,418 shares during the period. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Avantor by 41.4% during the fourth quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 30,528,092 shares of the company’s stock worth $643,227,000 after purchasing an additional 8,936,879 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its holdings in Avantor by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 21,037,089 shares of the company’s stock worth $443,251,000 after buying an additional 112,644 shares during the period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings in Avantor by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 18,136,206 shares of the company’s stock worth $382,131,000 after buying an additional 443,501 shares during the period. 95.08% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Avantor from $25.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Avantor from $24.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 28th. TD Cowen lowered shares of Avantor from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $15.50 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, April 28th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered shares of Avantor from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $26.00 to $14.00 in a report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Avantor from $18.00 to $15.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 28th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $18.88.

Avantor Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AVTR opened at $12.70 on Friday. Avantor, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $11.82 and a fifty-two week high of $28.00. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $14.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $18.29. The company has a market capitalization of $8.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.21, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a current ratio of 1.07.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last announced its earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $0.23 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23. Avantor had a net margin of 10.49% and a return on equity of 12.17%. The business had revenue of $1.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.61 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.22 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Avantor, Inc. will post 1.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Avantor

In related news, EVP James Bramwell sold 3,758 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.53, for a total transaction of $65,877.74. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 87,379 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,531,753.87. This trade represents a 4.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Gregory L. Summe purchased 25,000 shares of Avantor stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $12.00 per share, with a total value of $300,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 50,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $600,000. This represents a 100.00% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders bought 53,100 shares of company stock valued at $652,630 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

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.