Yousif Capital Management LLC Sells 497 Shares of Avient Corporation $AVNT

Yousif Capital Management LLC cut its holdings in Avient Corporation (NYSE:AVNT) by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 30,645 shares of the company’s stock after selling 497 shares during the period. Yousif Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Avient were worth $990,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Avient by 6.9% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,348,157 shares of the company’s stock worth $161,576,000 after purchasing an additional 279,064 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in Avient by 0.8% in the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 3,513,732 shares of the company’s stock worth $129,586,000 after purchasing an additional 27,608 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its stake in Avient by 9.1% in the first quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 3,118,170 shares of the company’s stock worth $115,871,000 after purchasing an additional 260,670 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Avient by 4.2% in the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,522,503 shares of the company’s stock worth $56,576,000 after purchasing an additional 62,022 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Avient in the first quarter worth $50,471,000. 95.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on AVNT. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on shares of Avient from $43.00 to $37.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 4th. KeyCorp assumed coverage on shares of Avient in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $48.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Avient in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $43.60.

Avient Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:AVNT opened at $32.09 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $2.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $34.69 and a 200-day moving average price of $34.34. The company has a current ratio of 2.03, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85. Avient Corporation has a 12 month low of $27.86 and a 12 month high of $54.68.

Avient (NYSE:AVNT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.02. Avient had a net margin of 3.65% and a return on equity of 10.57%. The company had revenue of $866.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $852.98 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.76 earnings per share. Avient’s revenue was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. Avient has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 0.700-0.700 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 2.770-2.870 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Avient Corporation will post 2.85 EPS for the current year.

Avient Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 7th. Investors of record on Friday, December 12th will be paid a $0.275 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 12th. This is an increase from Avient’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.4%. Avient’s payout ratio is currently 84.38%.

Avient Company 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.