American Century Companies Inc. Cuts Position in Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT)

American Century Companies Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT) by 11.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 1,467,173 shares of the company’s stock after selling 183,133 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. owned approximately 1.61% of Avient worth $64,042,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Avient by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,368,900 shares of the company’s stock valued at $431,035,000 after buying an additional 34,399 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in shares of Avient by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 4,128,934 shares of the company’s stock worth $179,196,000 after purchasing an additional 36,742 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in Avient by 11.4% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,724,336 shares of the company’s stock worth $154,821,000 after purchasing an additional 381,610 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its position in Avient by 5.2% during the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,662,877 shares of the company’s stock valued at $72,169,000 after purchasing an additional 82,010 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lord Abbett & CO. LLC grew its position in Avient by 28.8% during the 1st quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 1,470,349 shares of the company’s stock valued at $63,813,000 after purchasing an additional 328,773 shares during the last quarter. 95.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Avient from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $49.00 to $52.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th.

Avient Trading Up 2.5 %

Shares of NYSE:AVNT opened at $47.12 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.73. Avient Co. has a 1 year low of $27.73 and a 1 year high of $49.47. The company has a market cap of $4.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.97, a PEG ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 1.47. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $45.54 and its 200-day moving average price is $43.98.

Avient (NYSE:AVNT) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.72 by $0.04. Avient had a net margin of 3.70% and a return on equity of 10.34%. The business had revenue of $850.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $841.40 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.63 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Avient Co. will post 2.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Avient Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be given a $0.2575 dividend. This represents a $1.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.19%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. This is an increase from Avient’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. Avient’s payout ratio is 89.57%.

Avient Profile

Avient Corporation operates as a formulator of material solutions in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, South America, and Asia. It operates in two segments, Color, Additives and Inks; and Specialty Engineered Materials. The Color, Additives and Inks segment offers custom color and additive concentrates in solid and liquid form for thermoplastics, dispersions for thermosets, and specialty inks; custom-formulated liquid system, such as polyester, vinyl, natural rubber and latex, polyurethane, and silicone; and proprietary inks.