Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT) Stake Cut by Deprince Race & Zollo Inc.

Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. cut its position in shares of Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT) by 7.2% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 704,336 shares of the company’s stock after selling 54,800 shares during the period. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc.’s holdings in Avient were worth $30,744,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in Avient during the first quarter worth $35,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Avient by 88.6% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 811 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 381 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale acquired a new stake in Avient in the second quarter worth $59,000. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Avient in the second quarter worth $119,000. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Avient in the first quarter worth $133,000. 95.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Avient Price Performance

Shares of AVNT opened at $49.37 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.97. Avient Co. has a one year low of $27.73 and a one year high of $50.00. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $46.26 and its 200-day moving average is $44.39.

Avient (NYSE:AVNT) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $850.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $841.40 million. Avient had a return on equity of 10.34% and a net margin of 3.70%. Avient’s revenue was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.63 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Avient Co. will post 2.65 EPS for the current year.

Avient Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 9th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th will be given a $0.2575 dividend. This is a positive change from Avient’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.09%. Avient’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 89.57%.

About Avient

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.