Avient (NYSE:AVNT) Price Target Raised to $52.00 at Wells Fargo & Company

Avient (NYSE:AVNT) had its price target increased by Wells Fargo & Company from $50.00 to $52.00 in a research report released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the stock.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on the stock. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Avient from $45.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Avient from $49.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Avient presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $46.20.

Avient Trading Down 2.6 %

Shares of AVNT opened at $45.12 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $42.27 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.57. Avient has a twelve month low of $27.73 and a twelve month high of $47.87. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $4.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.91 and a beta of 1.53.

Avient (NYSE:AVNT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.76 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $829.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $818.45 million. Avient had a return on equity of 9.26% and a net margin of 2.41%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.63 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Avient will post 2.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Avient Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 19th were issued a dividend of $0.257 per share. This represents a $1.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 18th. Avient’s payout ratio is 124.10%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Avient

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in shares of Avient by 15.8% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,580,867 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,717,000 after acquiring an additional 215,709 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Avient by 7.8% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,229,160 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,414,000 after purchasing an additional 88,576 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp raised its position in shares of Avient by 42.8% in the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,001 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. TimesSquare Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Avient by 32.4% during the 3rd quarter. TimesSquare Capital Management LLC now owns 737,577 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,051,000 after buying an additional 180,330 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bailard Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Avient during the fourth quarter worth approximately $307,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.48% of the company’s stock.

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.