Analysts Set Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT) Target Price at $54.50

Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the five brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $54.50.

AVNT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Avient from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $49.00 to $52.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Avient from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Seaport Res Ptn cut Avient from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Avient from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th.

Institutional Trading of Avient

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC boosted its stake in shares of Avient by 28.8% during the first 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 in the last quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP boosted its stake in shares of Avient by 13.2% during the first quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 1,359,671 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,010,000 after purchasing an additional 158,163 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new stake in shares of Avient during the second quarter valued at about $15,520,000. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Avient by 318.6% during the second quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 50,824 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,218,000 after purchasing an additional 38,683 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bahl & Gaynor Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Avient by 6.9% during the first quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 404,804 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,568,000 after purchasing an additional 26,135 shares in the last quarter. 95.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Avient Stock Up 0.4 %

AVNT stock opened at $48.06 on Friday. 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 has a fifty-two week low of $27.73 and a fifty-two week high of $51.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.79, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.47. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $48.20 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $45.45.

Avient (NYSE:AVNT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.76 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.04. Avient had a return on equity of 10.34% and a net margin of 3.70%. The company had revenue of $850.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $841.40 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.63 earnings per share. Avient’s revenue was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Avient will post 2.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Avient Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This is a positive change from Avient’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.25%. Avient’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 93.91%.

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.