ARK Investment Management LLC Buys 354 Shares of Avient Corporation $AVNT

ARK Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Avient Corporation (NYSE:AVNT) by 18.3% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 2,286 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 354 shares during the period. ARK Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Avient were worth $74,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Avient by 6.9% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,348,157 shares of the company’s stock worth $161,576,000 after acquiring an additional 279,064 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its position in Avient by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 3,513,732 shares of the company’s stock worth $129,586,000 after acquiring an additional 27,608 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its position in Avient by 9.1% during the 1st quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 3,118,170 shares of the company’s stock worth $115,871,000 after acquiring an additional 260,670 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Avient by 4.2% during the 1st 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. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Avient during the 1st quarter valued at about $50,471,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.48% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on AVNT shares. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Avient in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on Avient from $43.00 to $37.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Finally, KeyCorp started coverage on Avient in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $48.00 price target for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $43.60.

Avient Stock Performance

NYSE AVNT opened at $31.78 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.41. Avient Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $27.86 and a fifty-two week high of $54.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a current ratio of 2.03. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $34.60 and its two-hundred day moving average is $34.32.

Avient (NYSE:AVNT) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $866.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $852.98 million. Avient had a return on equity of 10.57% and a net margin of 3.65%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.76 earnings per share. Avient has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 0.700-0.700 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 2.770-2.870 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Avient Corporation will post 2.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Avient Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.275 per share. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.5%. This is a positive change from Avient’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 12th. Avient’s payout ratio is currently 84.38%.

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.