Raymond James Financial Inc. Acquires Shares of 204,196 Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT)

Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 204,196 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,344,000.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of AVNT. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Avient by 120.2% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,460,481 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,675,000 after acquiring an additional 797,112 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its stake in Avient by 7.6% during the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,825,283 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,581,000 after acquiring an additional 128,718 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Avient by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,231,720 shares of the company’s stock valued at $213,977,000 after acquiring an additional 121,349 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in Avient by 221.7% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 173,002 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,706,000 after acquiring an additional 119,229 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Avient by 22.4% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 608,621 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,626,000 after acquiring an additional 111,489 shares in the last quarter. 95.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Avient from $59.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Avient from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Baird R W upgraded Avient to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Robert W. Baird assumed coverage on Avient in a research note on Friday, March 14th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $43.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on Avient from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Avient presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $51.80.

Avient Trading Down 3.1 %

Shares of AVNT opened at $38.43 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $42.02 and a 200 day moving average of $45.55. Avient Co. has a fifty-two week low of $37.49 and a fifty-two week high of $54.68. The firm has a market cap of $3.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 1.88.

Avient (NYSE:AVNT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The company reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.49. Avient had a return on equity of 10.44% and a net margin of 5.23%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Avient Co. will post 2.85 EPS for the current year.

Avient Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 4th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be issued a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 18th. Avient’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 59.02%.

Avient Company 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.