Wedge Capital Management L L P NC Sells 11,921 Shares of Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR)

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC reduced its stake in shares of Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) by 15.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 64,391 shares of the company’s stock after selling 11,921 shares during the quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC’s holdings in Avantor were worth $1,666,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in AVTR. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Avantor by 113.0% in the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,497,349 shares of the company’s stock worth $63,857,000 after acquiring an additional 1,325,026 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Avantor in the first quarter worth $2,707,000. Diversify Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Avantor during the first quarter worth $908,000. Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Avantor in the first quarter valued at $1,538,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its holdings in shares of Avantor by 42.4% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 309,394 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,911,000 after buying an additional 92,098 shares during the last quarter. 95.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on AVTR shares. Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on shares of Avantor in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $30.00 price objective for the company. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Avantor from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Avantor from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Citigroup cut Avantor from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $30.00 to $23.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $34.00 price target on shares of Avantor in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $28.00.

Avantor Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:AVTR opened at $24.79 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $25.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $24.34. Avantor, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $16.63 and a fifty-two week high of $28.00. The company has a market capitalization of $16.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 63.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 1.59 and a quick ratio of 1.05.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Avantor

In other news, CAO Steven W. Eck sold 3,525 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.06, for a total transaction of $88,336.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,544 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $740,372.64. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.50% 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.