William Blair Investment Management LLC Acquires 6,351 Shares of Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR)

William Blair Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) by 0.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,054,083 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 6,351 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC owned 0.16% of Avantor worth $22,347,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of AVTR. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in shares of Avantor by 146.1% during the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 217,296 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,961,000 after buying an additional 129,010 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Avantor by 13.2% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,976,265 shares of the company’s stock worth $90,789,000 after buying an additional 463,662 shares during the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Avantor by 20.4% during the fourth quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 34,575 shares of the company’s stock worth $789,000 after buying an additional 5,864 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Avantor during the fourth quarter worth approximately $156,455,000. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of Avantor by 35.3% during the fourth quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,863,981 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,385,000 after buying an additional 746,624 shares during the last quarter. 95.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on AVTR. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Avantor from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Avantor from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Wells Fargo & Company began coverage on shares of Avantor in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $30.00 target price for the company. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Avantor from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered their target price on shares of Avantor from $28.00 to $27.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $27.40.

Avantor Stock Performance

Shares of AVTR opened at $26.88 on Monday. Avantor, Inc. has a 12 month low of $16.63 and a 12 month high of $28.00. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $24.42 and a 200 day simple moving average of $24.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 68.92, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a current ratio of 1.59, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89.

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) last announced its earnings results on Friday, July 26th. The company reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.02. Avantor had a net margin of 5.28% and a return on equity of 12.40%. The business had revenue of $1.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. Research analysts forecast that Avantor, Inc. will post 1.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Steven W. Eck sold 3,525 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.06, for a total transaction of $88,336.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,544 shares in the company, valued at $740,372.64. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.