Investors Buy Large Volume of Put Options on Avantor (NYSE:AVTR)

Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) saw unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Stock investors bought 10,013 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 55% compared to the typical daily volume of 6,469 put options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Steven W. Eck sold 3,525 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 5th. The shares were 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. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Avantor

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AVTR. 1832 Asset Management L.P. raised its position in shares of Avantor by 1,634.9% in the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 8,530,118 shares of the company’s stock worth $180,839,000 after buying an additional 8,038,451 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Avantor in the 4th quarter valued at about $156,455,000. CCLA Investment Management grew its holdings in shares of Avantor by 147,220.3% during the 1st quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 4,720,144 shares of the company’s stock worth $120,828,000 after purchasing an additional 4,716,940 shares during the period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Avantor during the 4th quarter worth about $93,433,000. Finally, Sound Shore Management Inc. CT acquired a new stake in Avantor during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $76,412,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.08% of the company’s stock.

Avantor Price Performance

AVTR stock opened at $25.55 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.59 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 stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $23.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $24.20.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 26th. The company reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.02. Avantor had a net margin of 5.28% and a return on equity of 12.40%. The business had revenue of $1.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Equities research analysts expect that Avantor will post 1.01 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $31.00 price objective on shares of Avantor in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Barclays raised their price target on Avantor from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on shares of Avantor from $28.00 to $27.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Avantor from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. Finally, Citigroup cut shares of Avantor from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $23.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. 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, Avantor currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target 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.