Avantor Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:AVTR)

Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Stock traders acquired 7,720 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 27% compared to the typical volume of 6,085 call options.

Avantor Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE:AVTR traded up $0.40 during trading on Monday, reaching $25.15. 3,564,745 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,442,284. The company has a current ratio of 1.59, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. Avantor has a 52-week low of $16.63 and a 52-week high of $28.00. The business’s fifty day moving average is $25.66 and its 200-day moving average is $24.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 63.46, a P/E/G ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.33.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Avantor

In related news, CAO Steven W. Eck sold 3,525 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.06, for a total transaction of $88,336.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,544 shares in the company, valued at $740,372.64. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AVTR. V Square Quantitative Management LLC raised its holdings in Avantor by 66.1% in the fourth quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 7,429 shares of the company’s stock worth $170,000 after buying an additional 2,956 shares during the last quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky raised its stake in Avantor by 12.3% during the 4th quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 525,706 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,002,000 after buying an additional 57,519 shares during the last quarter. Leo Wealth LLC bought a new position in Avantor in the fourth quarter valued at about $906,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Avantor during the 4th quarter valued at about $287,000. Finally, First Hawaiian Bank boosted its stake in shares of Avantor by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 91,582 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,342,000 after acquiring an additional 879 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.08% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on AVTR. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on shares of Avantor from $28.00 to $27.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Barclays lifted their target price on Avantor from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Avantor from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Avantor from $30.00 to $29.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Avantor from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Avantor currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $28.00.

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.