Key Points
- Director purchase: Avantor director Gregory Summe bought 100,000 shares at about $9.40 on Feb. 12 for $940,000, boosting his stake to 400,000 shares (a 33.3% increase), according to an SEC filing.
- Earnings and guidance: Q4 adjusted EPS slightly beat expectations ($0.22 vs. $0.21) and revenue marginally beat, but management set FY2026 guidance of $0.77–$0.83 (below consensus ~0.90), with margin compression and a GAAP net loss raising investor concern.
- Street view and ownership: The consensus analyst rating is "Hold" with a $12.09 target, and institutional investors hold roughly 95% of the stock, indicating concentrated ownership amid mixed analyst sentiment.
Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR - Get Free Report) Director Gregory Summe purchased 100,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 12th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $9.40 per share, with a total value of $940,000.00. Following the acquisition, the director owned 400,000 shares in the company, valued at $3,760,000. This represents a 33.33% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.
Avantor Stock Performance
AVTR opened at $9.14 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 1.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The company has a market cap of $6.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.72, a PEG ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 0.94. Avantor, Inc. has a 52-week low of $8.90 and a 52-week high of $18.36. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $11.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $12.26.
Avantor (NYSE:AVTR - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.01. Avantor had a negative net margin of 8.09% and a positive return on equity of 10.45%. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.27 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. Avantor has set its FY 2026 guidance at 0.770-0.830 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Avantor, Inc. will post 1.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AVTR. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed an "underperform" rating and issued a $8.00 price target on shares of Avantor in a research note on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus set a $10.00 price objective on Avantor in a report on Thursday. Evercore set a $12.00 target price on shares of Avantor and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a report on Monday, January 5th. Evercore ISI set a $10.00 target price on shares of Avantor in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Avantor from $13.00 to $11.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Avantor presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $12.09.
Read Our Latest Research Report on AVTR
Institutional Inflows and Outflows
Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AVTR. Dodge & Cox grew its holdings in shares of Avantor by 0.3% in the third quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 117,746,888 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,469,481,000 after purchasing an additional 313,404 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Avantor by 1.8% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,988,977 shares of the company's stock valued at $823,542,000 after purchasing an additional 1,135,279 shares during the period. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC grew its holdings in shares of Avantor by 10.8% during the 3rd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 34,548,129 shares of the company's stock worth $431,161,000 after purchasing an additional 3,356,861 shares during the period. Greenhaven Associates Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Avantor by 12.0% during the 4th quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. now owns 20,500,653 shares of the company's stock worth $234,937,000 after purchasing an additional 2,189,083 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Avantor by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 16,053,368 shares of the company's stock worth $200,346,000 after purchasing an additional 119,508 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.08% of the company's stock.
Trending Headlines about Avantor
Here are the key news stories impacting Avantor this week:
- Positive Sentiment: Director purchase — Avantor director Gregory L. Summe bought 100,000 shares at ~$9.40, increasing his stake by 33%; insider buying can signal management confidence and provide some investor support. Insider Purchase
- Neutral Sentiment: Reported Q4 results that beat consensus on adjusted EPS ($0.22 vs $0.21) and slightly beat revenue estimates ($1.66B vs $1.64B), and generated positive operating/free cash flow — but sales were down year-over-year. PR Release
- Neutral Sentiment: Company provided detailed commentary and a slide deck on its “revival program” (VWR relaunch, supply-chain and e‑commerce initiatives) — important for longer-term execution but unlikely to reverse near-term pressure immediately. Slide Deck
- Negative Sentiment: Lower FY2026 EPS guidance (0.77–0.83) vs consensus (~0.90) — the guidance miss is the primary catalyst for the drop, signaling continued margin and revenue pressure.
- Negative Sentiment: Market reaction and analyst commentary flagged margin compression and slipping organic sales as risks; one coverage note highlighted the shares plunging after the report. Zacks: Stock Reaction
- Negative Sentiment: Unusually large put buying (≈48k puts) shows elevated bearish/options hedging interest — increases downside pressure and volatility.
- Negative Sentiment: 2025 profit swing to a GAAP net loss underscores near-term execution/earnings risk despite adjusted profit metrics; analysts and investors will watch management’s recovery plan closely. Yahoo: Profit Swing
Avantor Company Profile
(
Get Free Report)
Avantor, Inc (NYSE:AVTR) is a global provider of mission-critical products and services to customers in the biopharma, healthcare, education & government, and advanced technologies & applied materials industries. The company delivers essential solutions that support research, development, production and safety applications. Its product portfolio spans from high-purity chemicals and reagents to biologics and cell culture media, as well as lab equipment, consumables and custom manufacturing services.
Avantor's offerings are organized across two primary segments.
See Also

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from InsiderTrades.com in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected].