William Blair Investment Management LLC Sells 4,410,817 Shares of Avantor, Inc. $AVTR

William Blair Investment Management LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) by 99.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 22,225 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,410,817 shares during the quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Avantor were worth $299,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Dodge & Cox lifted its holdings in shares of Avantor by 1.1% during the first quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 100,262,723 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,625,259,000 after purchasing an additional 1,116,953 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Avantor by 1.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,952,926 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,052,887,000 after purchasing an additional 983,172 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Avantor by 1.5% during the first quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 41,969,199 shares of the company’s stock valued at $680,321,000 after purchasing an additional 608,806 shares in the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. boosted its position in Avantor by 89.8% in the first quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 18,127,204 shares of the company’s stock worth $293,842,000 after purchasing an additional 8,578,493 shares during the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its position in Avantor by 53.2% in the first quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 14,034,699 shares of the company’s stock worth $227,502,000 after purchasing an additional 4,876,524 shares during the last quarter. 95.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AVTR has been the topic of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Avantor from $17.00 to $14.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on Avantor from $18.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Barclays raised their target price on Avantor from $13.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus set a $12.00 target price on Avantor and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Avantor from $18.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Avantor presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $15.81.

Insider Transactions at Avantor

In related news, CAO Steven W. Eck sold 3,476 shares of Avantor stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.39, for a total transaction of $39,591.64. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 55,068 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $627,224.52. This trade represents a 5.94% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

Avantor Stock Up 2.7%

NYSE AVTR opened at $15.19 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $13.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $13.33. The company has a market capitalization of $10.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.83 and a beta of 0.98. Avantor, Inc. has a 52 week low of $10.82 and a 52 week high of $24.86. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last issued its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The company reported $0.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.25 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $1.68 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.67 billion. Avantor had a net margin of 10.31% and a return on equity of 11.39%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.25 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Avantor, Inc. will post 1.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Avantor Company Profile

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.