Chesapeake Capital Corp IL Has $321,000 Stock Holdings in Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT)

Chesapeake Capital Corp IL cut its stake in shares of Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT) by 51.4% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 7,358 shares of the company’s stock after selling 7,786 shares during the quarter. Chesapeake Capital Corp IL’s holdings in Avient were worth $321,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AVNT. Natixis Advisors L.P. boosted its position in Avient by 28.0% during the fourth quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 41,943 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,743,000 after purchasing an additional 9,177 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Avient by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,253,146 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,093,000 after buying an additional 23,986 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Avient by 12.6% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,438,391 shares of the company’s stock valued at $142,937,000 after buying an additional 384,452 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in Avient by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,457,723 shares of the company’s stock valued at $60,598,000 after buying an additional 29,591 shares during the period. Finally, Great Lakes Advisors LLC raised its stake in Avient by 35.9% in the fourth quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC now owns 99,615 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,141,000 after buying an additional 26,340 shares during the period. 95.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Avient Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AVNT opened at $45.02 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $4.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Avient Co. has a 1-year low of $27.73 and a 1-year high of $49.47. The business’s 50 day moving average is $45.30 and its 200-day moving average is $43.84.

Avient (NYSE:AVNT) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.04. The company 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%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.63 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Avient Co. will post 2.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Avient Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 9th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.2575 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.29%. This is a positive change from Avient’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. 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.