Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) Short Interest Up 6.6% in March

Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 29,290,000 shares, an increase of 6.6% from the March 15th total of 27,470,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 5,900,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.0 days.

Insider Activity at Avantor

In related news, EVP James Bramwell sold 6,203 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.49, for a total transaction of $151,911.47. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 101,143 shares in the company, valued at $2,476,992.07. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Avantor

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AVTR. Dodge & Cox lifted its holdings in shares of Avantor by 360.4% in the 4th quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 61,196,331 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,397,112,000 after acquiring an additional 47,904,427 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Avantor by 32.5% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 76,325,881 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,609,713,000 after buying an additional 18,711,696 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Avantor in the 4th quarter worth about $156,455,000. Steadfast Capital Management LP purchased a new position in Avantor in the 1st quarter worth about $106,228,000. Finally, Boston Partners increased its stake in Avantor by 21.4% in the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 28,077,026 shares of the company’s stock worth $588,362,000 after buying an additional 4,948,951 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 95.08% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AVTR has been the subject of a number of research reports. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Avantor from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Raymond James upped their target price on shares of Avantor from $22.50 to $26.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Avantor from $26.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Avantor from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Avantor from $25.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $26.50.

Avantor Price Performance

AVTR stock opened at $24.71 on Tuesday. Avantor has a 52 week low of $16.63 and a 52 week high of $26.16. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $24.86 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $22.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.37.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The company reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Avantor had a net margin of 4.61% and a return on equity of 14.11%. Avantor’s quarterly revenue was down 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.32 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Avantor will post 1.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.