Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Put Options on Avantor (NYSE:AVTR)

Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) was the target of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Stock investors acquired 29,996 put options on the company. This is an increase of 463% compared to the average volume of 5,332 put options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Avantor by 2.7% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,641,764 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,805,000 after acquiring an additional 42,868 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Avantor by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,097,671 shares of the company’s stock valued at $23,271,000 after purchasing an additional 18,672 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Avantor by 8.6% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,434,195 shares of the company’s stock valued at $94,018,000 after buying an additional 350,247 shares in the last quarter. Sargent Investment Group LLC bought a new stake in Avantor during the second quarter worth about $338,000. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Avantor by 4.6% during the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 25,440 shares of the company’s stock worth $539,000 after buying an additional 1,119 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.08% of the company’s stock.

Avantor Price Performance

Shares of Avantor stock traded down $0.43 during trading on Friday, hitting $22.14. 6,042,606 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,101,021. The company has a market cap of $15.07 billion, a PE ratio of 48.13, a PEG ratio of 3.42 and a beta of 1.28. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $21.45 and its 200 day moving average price is $23.35. Avantor has a twelve month low of $19.59 and a twelve month high of $28.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 1.54 and a quick ratio of 1.06.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AVTR has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $25.00 target price (down from $29.00) on shares of Avantor in a research note on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $34.00 price objective on shares of Avantor in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Avantor from $30.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Barclays cut their price target on Avantor from $28.00 to $25.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Avantor from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $27.38.

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.