Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) Shares Bought by Blue Trust Inc.

Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in shares of Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) by 1,830.3% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,467 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,391 shares during the quarter. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Avantor were worth $31,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in shares of Avantor by 113.0% during the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,497,349 shares of the company’s stock worth $63,857,000 after purchasing an additional 1,325,026 shares in the last quarter. Mesirow Institutional Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Avantor during the fourth quarter worth $2,842,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its holdings in shares of Avantor by 146.1% during the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 217,296 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,961,000 after buying an additional 129,010 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Avantor in the first quarter valued at about $2,707,000. Finally, Diversify Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Avantor in the first quarter worth about $908,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.08% of the company’s stock.

Avantor Price Performance

Avantor stock opened at $25.66 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $23.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $24.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.59. Avantor, Inc. has a 1 year low of $16.63 and a 1 year high of $28.00. The company has a market capitalization of $17.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 1.32.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last posted its earnings results on Friday, July 26th. The company reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.02. Avantor had a net margin of 5.28% and a return on equity of 12.40%. The firm had revenue of $1.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Avantor, Inc. will post 1.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on AVTR shares. Citigroup cut shares of Avantor from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $23.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on Avantor from $28.00 to $27.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Barclays increased their price target on Avantor from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Avantor from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Avantor from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $27.21.

Avantor Company 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.