Prudent Man Advisors LLC Purchases New Position in Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT)

Prudent Man Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm acquired 3,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $200,000.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new position in shares of Avient in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $15,520,000. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Avient by 318.6% during the second quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 50,824 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,218,000 after buying an additional 38,683 shares during the period. Great Lakes Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Avient by 114.6% during the 2nd quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC now owns 241,893 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,559,000 after buying an additional 129,171 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. grew its position in shares of Avient by 39.4% in the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 155,763 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,799,000 after buying an additional 44,026 shares during the period. Finally, Hantz Financial Services Inc. bought a new position in shares of Avient in the 2nd quarter worth about $2,901,000. 95.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on AVNT. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Avient from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Avient from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $49.00 to $52.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Avient from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn lowered Avient from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $54.50.

Avient Stock Performance

Shares of AVNT opened at $50.75 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $4.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.48. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $49.00 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $46.32. Avient Co. has a 12 month low of $33.84 and a 12 month high of $54.68. The company has a current ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87.

Avient (NYSE:AVNT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.02. Avient had a return on equity of 10.56% and a net margin of 4.66%. The company had revenue of $815.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $797.50 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.57 EPS. Avient’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Avient Co. will post 2.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Avient Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.13%. This is a boost from Avient’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Avient’s payout ratio is presently 63.58%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Joel R. Rathbun sold 5,762 shares of Avient stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.45, for a total value of $296,454.90. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.88% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.