Handelsbanken Fonder AB Increases Stock Position in Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its position in shares of Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT) by 27.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 20,881 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,500 shares during the quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in Avient were worth $1,051,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in Avient by 6.5% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 319,545 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,283,000 after buying an additional 19,375 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Avient by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,368,900 shares of the company’s stock worth $431,035,000 after acquiring an additional 34,399 shares during the last quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Avient in the 4th quarter valued at $390,000. NBC Securities Inc. raised its position in Avient by 11.2% in the 1st quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 4,010 shares of the company’s stock valued at $174,000 after purchasing an additional 405 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in Avient by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 4,128,934 shares of the company’s stock valued at $179,196,000 after purchasing an additional 36,742 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.48% of the company’s stock.

Avient Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of AVNT stock opened at $48.51 on Friday. Avient Co. has a twelve month low of $27.73 and a twelve month high of $51.51. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The business’s 50 day moving average is $47.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is $45.03. The company has a market capitalization of $4.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.47.

Avient (NYSE:AVNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $850.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $841.40 million. Avient had a net margin of 3.70% and a return on equity of 10.34%. Avient’s quarterly revenue was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.63 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Avient Co. will post 2.65 EPS for the current year.

Avient Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This is a boost from Avient’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Avient’s dividend payout ratio is currently 81.10%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Avient from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $49.00 to $52.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th.

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.