California Public Employees Retirement System Has $6.94 Million Position in Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT)

California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its holdings in shares of Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT) by 1.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 167,028 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,099 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System owned 0.18% of Avient worth $6,943,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in AVNT. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its holdings in Avient by 42.8% during the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,001 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the period. NBC Securities Inc. acquired a new position in Avient in the third quarter valued at about $136,000. Cetera Trust Company N.A bought a new stake in shares of Avient in the fourth quarter worth about $191,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC acquired a new stake in shares of Avient during the third quarter worth about $204,000. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp bought a new position in shares of Avient during the 4th quarter valued at about $234,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.48% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on AVNT. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Avient from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Avient from $45.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th.

Avient Trading Up 0.5 %

NYSE AVNT opened at $44.15 on Friday. Avient Co. has a 52 week low of $27.73 and a 52 week high of $44.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.82. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $41.84 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $38.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.19, a PEG ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.53.

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

Avient Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 19th were given a dividend of $0.257 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 18th. This represents a $1.03 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.33%. Avient’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 124.10%.

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.