Avient Corporation (NYSE:AVNT) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Avient Corporation (NYSE:AVNT) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the nine ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $46.00.

A number of research firms recently issued reports on AVNT. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Avient in a report on Saturday, September 27th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of 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 began coverage on shares of Avient in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $48.00 target price for the company.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Avient

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Avient by 6.9% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,348,157 shares of the company’s stock worth $161,576,000 after buying an additional 279,064 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in Avient by 0.8% in the first 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 shares of Avient by 9.1% in the 1st quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 3,118,170 shares of the company’s stock worth $115,871,000 after purchasing an additional 260,670 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Avient by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,252,855 shares of the company’s stock worth $72,797,000 after purchasing an additional 19,813 shares during the period. Finally, Channing Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Avient by 4.8% in the 2nd quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC now owns 1,760,151 shares of the company’s stock worth $56,870,000 after purchasing an additional 81,393 shares during the period. 95.48% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Avient Price Performance

AVNT stock opened at $31.97 on Friday. Avient has a 12 month low of $27.86 and a 12 month high of $54.68. The company has a current ratio of 2.03, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $35.03 and a 200 day moving average price of $34.71. The stock has a market cap of $2.93 billion, a PE ratio of 24.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.41.

Avient (NYSE:AVNT) last announced its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.02. Avient had a return on equity of 10.57% and a net margin of 3.65%.The business had revenue of $866.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $852.98 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.76 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Avient has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 0.700-0.700 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 2.770-2.870 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Avient will post 2.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Avient Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 8th. Investors of record on Friday, September 12th will be issued a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 12th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.4%. Avient’s payout ratio is presently 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.