Ethic Inc. Purchases 1,200 Shares of Avient Corporation $AVNT

Ethic Inc. boosted its position in Avient Corporation (NYSE:AVNT) by 5.4% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 23,456 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,200 shares during the quarter. Ethic Inc.’s holdings in Avient were worth $770,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AVNT. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Avient by 6.9% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,348,157 shares of the company’s stock valued at $161,576,000 after acquiring an additional 279,064 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Avient by 9.1% during the first quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 3,118,170 shares of the company’s stock valued at $115,871,000 after acquiring an additional 260,670 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased 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 acquiring an additional 62,022 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Avient during the first quarter valued at $50,471,000. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Avient by 1.1% during the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,335,766 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,641,000 after acquiring an additional 13,975 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.48% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Avient Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of NYSE:AVNT opened at $32.69 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.54, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.41. 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 50-day simple moving average is $34.41 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $34.41. Avient Corporation has a 52-week low of $27.86 and a 52-week high of $54.68.

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

Avient Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 12th will be given a $0.275 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 12th. This is a positive change from Avient’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.4%. Avient’s payout ratio is 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.