Avient (NYSE:AVNT) Price Target Increased to $49.00 by Analysts at Oppenheimer

Avient (NYSE:AVNT) had its price target increased by Oppenheimer from $45.00 to $49.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the stock.

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Avient from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th.

Avient Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of AVNT stock opened at $42.36 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $40.90 and its 200-day moving average price is $37.54. The company has a current ratio of 1.82, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. The stock has a market cap of $3.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.04, a PEG ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.53. Avient has a twelve month low of $27.73 and a twelve month high of $43.97.

Avient (NYSE:AVNT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The company reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $719.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $711.87 million. Avient had a net margin of 2.41% and a return on equity of 9.26%. The company’s revenue was down 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.39 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Avient will post 2.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Avient Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 19th were issued a $0.257 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 18th. This represents a $1.03 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.43%. Avient’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 124.10%.

Institutional Trading of Avient

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AVNT. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Avient in the 4th quarter valued at about $40,628,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Avient by 6.3% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,802,120 shares of the company’s stock valued at $470,502,000 after buying an additional 583,179 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Avient by 19,776.2% in the 1st quarter. FMR LLC now owns 564,086 shares of the company’s stock valued at $23,218,000 after buying an additional 561,248 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado raised its holdings in Avient by 17,378.2% in the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 482,399 shares of the company’s stock valued at $20,053,000 after buying an additional 479,639 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Avient by 12.6% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,438,391 shares of the company’s stock valued at $142,937,000 after buying an additional 384,452 shares during the period. 95.48% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.