Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) Short Interest Update

Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in August. As of August 15th, there was short interest totalling 36,390,000 shares, a growth of 9.2% from the July 31st total of 33,330,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 8,760,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.2 days.

Avantor Stock Performance

Avantor stock traded down $0.17 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $25.67. The company had a trading volume of 178,017 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,700,632. Avantor has a one year low of $16.63 and a one year high of $28.00. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $23.56 and a 200 day moving average of $24.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 1.59 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The firm has a market cap of $17.45 billion, a PE ratio of 66.26, a PEG ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.32.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 26th. The company reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Avantor had a return on equity of 12.40% and a net margin of 5.28%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Avantor will post 1.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Avantor

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AVTR. New York Life Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Avantor by 13.7% in the fourth quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC now owns 10,979 shares of the company’s stock valued at $251,000 after buying an additional 1,321 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Avantor in the 4th quarter valued at $224,000. Natixis Advisors L.P. increased its position in shares of Avantor by 29.8% during the fourth quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 1,744,179 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,818,000 after buying an additional 400,592 shares during the period. Amalgamated Bank raised its stake in Avantor by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 68,344 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,560,000 after buying an additional 2,546 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Metis Global Partners LLC raised its stake in Avantor by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 25,255 shares of the company’s stock worth $577,000 after buying an additional 1,027 shares during the last quarter. 95.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on AVTR. Barclays increased their target price on Avantor from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Avantor from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Avantor from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on Avantor from $28.00 to $27.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on shares of Avantor in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $30.00 price target for the company. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $27.40.

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.