Westfield Capital Management Co. LP Cuts Stock Holdings in Avient Corporation (NYSE:AVNT)

Westfield Capital Management Co. LP decreased its position in shares of Avient Corporation (NYSE:AVNT) by 13.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,475,318 shares of the company’s stock after selling 236,434 shares during the quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP owned 1.61% of Avient worth $54,823,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Avient by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,069,093 shares of the company’s stock valued at $166,259,000 after buying an additional 90,535 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its holdings in shares of Avient by 0.8% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 3,513,732 shares of the company’s stock valued at $129,586,000 after buying an additional 27,608 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Avient by 4.2% during the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,522,503 shares of the company’s stock valued at $56,576,000 after buying an additional 62,022 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Avient by 14.2% during the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 1,332,275 shares of the company’s stock valued at $54,437,000 after buying an additional 165,322 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Avient by 200.7% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,321,791 shares of the company’s stock valued at $54,012,000 after buying an additional 882,234 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.48% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on AVNT. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Avient from $43.00 to $37.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Avient from $39.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Avient from $51.00 to $41.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Avient presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $45.60.

Avient Stock Up 0.5%

AVNT opened at $33.97 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.03, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85. Avient Corporation has a 1-year low of $27.86 and a 1-year high of $54.68. The company has a market capitalization of $3.11 billion, a PE ratio of 26.54, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.38. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $34.36 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $36.88.

Avient (NYSE:AVNT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.02. Avient had a net margin of 3.65% and a return on equity of 10.57%. The business had revenue of $866.50 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $852.98 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.76 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Avient Corporation will post 2.85 EPS for the current year.

Avient Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 8th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 12th will be given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.2%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 12th. Avient’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 84.38%.

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.