Retirement Systems of Alabama Has $12.35 Million Position in Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT)

Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its stake in Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT) by 0.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 296,974 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 449 shares during the quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama owned about 0.33% of Avient worth $12,345,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its holdings in shares of Avient by 42.8% in the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,001 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. bought a new position in shares of Avient in the third quarter valued at $136,000. Cetera Trust Company N.A acquired a new position in shares of Avient during the fourth quarter valued at about $191,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC bought a new stake in shares of Avient during the third quarter worth about $204,000. Finally, Kure Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Avient in the 3rd quarter worth about $210,000. 95.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Avient from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Avient from $45.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th.

Avient Stock Up 1.3 %

AVNT stock opened at $42.98 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $41.67 and a 200-day moving average of $38.12. Avient Co. has a fifty-two week low of $27.73 and a fifty-two week high of $43.97. The company has a market capitalization of $3.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.78, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.82.

Avient (NYSE:AVNT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The company reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.04. Avient had a net margin of 2.41% and a return on equity of 9.26%. The firm had revenue of $719.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $711.87 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.39 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Avient Co. will post 2.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Avient Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 19th were issued a $0.257 dividend. This represents a $1.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.39%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 18th. Avient’s payout ratio is currently 124.10%.

Avient Profile

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.