Traders Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Avantor (NYSE:AVTR)

Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) saw some unusual options trading on Monday. Stock traders purchased 19,262 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 163% compared to the average daily volume of 7,332 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on AVTR shares. 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. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Avantor from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $31.00 target price on shares of Avantor in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on shares of Avantor from $28.00 to $27.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Avantor from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $27.21.

Avantor Price Performance

Shares of AVTR opened at $25.41 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $17.26 billion, a PE ratio of 65.15, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 1.32. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $22.83 and its 200 day moving average price is $24.01. 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 has a twelve month low of $16.63 and a twelve month high of $28.00.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 26th. The company reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that Avantor will post 1.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Avantor

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Jennison Associates LLC grew its holdings in Avantor by 113.0% during the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,497,349 shares of the company’s stock valued at $63,857,000 after purchasing an additional 1,325,026 shares during the last quarter. Mesirow Institutional Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in Avantor during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,842,000. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its holdings in Avantor by 19.9% during the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 628,189 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,342,000 after purchasing an additional 104,296 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its holdings in Avantor by 146.1% during the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 217,296 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,961,000 after purchasing an additional 129,010 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Avantor during the first quarter valued at approximately $2,707,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.08% 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.