Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC Sells 3,048 Shares of Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT)

Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC lessened its holdings in Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT) by 31.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,798 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,048 shares during the quarter. Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Avient were worth $297,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AVNT. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Avient in the first quarter valued at approximately $35,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Avient by 88.6% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 811 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 381 shares in the last quarter. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Avient in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $119,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Avient during the 1st quarter worth approximately $133,000. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. grew its stake in shares of Avient by 11.2% during the 1st quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 4,010 shares of the company’s stock worth $174,000 after acquiring an additional 405 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.48% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Avient Stock Performance

NYSE AVNT traded up $0.36 on Friday, hitting $46.62. 6,854 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 453,140. The business’s fifty day moving average is $45.17 and its 200 day moving average is $43.65. Avient Co. has a 52 week low of $27.73 and a 52 week high of $49.47. The company has a market capitalization of $4.25 billion, a PE ratio of 40.23, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.73.

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

Avient Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 9th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.2575 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. This is a positive change from Avient’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. This represents a $1.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.21%. Avient’s payout ratio is presently 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.