Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) Downgraded by Citigroup

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) was downgraded by equities researchers at Citigroup from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, Marketbeat reports. They presently have a $23.00 target price on the stock, down from their previous target price of $30.00. Citigroup’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 8.06% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research firms have also weighed in on AVTR. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Avantor from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Barclays reduced their target price on Avantor from $28.00 to $25.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 28th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on Avantor from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Evercore ISI reduced their target price on Avantor from $28.00 to $27.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $25.79.

Avantor Stock Performance

NYSE:AVTR opened at $21.29 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $23.07 and its 200 day moving average price is $23.69. Avantor has a 1-year low of $16.63 and a 1-year high of $26.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.61 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The firm has a market cap of $14.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.32.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by $0.02. Avantor had a net margin of 3.79% and a return on equity of 13.01%. The firm had revenue of $1.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.29 EPS. Avantor’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Avantor will post 1.01 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Avantor by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,457,140 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,379,837,000 after buying an additional 211,189 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners raised its stake in shares of Avantor by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 28,561,802 shares of the company’s stock worth $729,298,000 after buying an additional 624,369 shares during the last quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP raised its stake in Avantor by 14.9% in the 1st quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP now owns 9,120,083 shares of the company’s stock valued at $233,109,000 after purchasing an additional 1,180,937 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its stake in Avantor by 4.4% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 7,099,848 shares of the company’s stock valued at $181,544,000 after purchasing an additional 297,534 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Avantor in the 4th quarter valued at about $156,455,000. 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.