New York State Common Retirement Fund Has $46.84 Million Holdings in Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT)

New York State Common Retirement Fund trimmed its holdings in Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT) by 3.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 930,929 shares of the company’s stock after selling 28,700 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Avient were worth $46,844,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC raised its position in shares of Avient by 28.8% in the first quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 1,470,349 shares of the company’s stock valued at $63,813,000 after purchasing an additional 328,773 shares during the period. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP grew its stake in Avient by 13.2% in the 1st quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 1,359,671 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,010,000 after buying an additional 158,163 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new position in Avient in the 2nd quarter valued at about $15,520,000. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Avient by 318.6% during the second quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 50,824 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,218,000 after acquiring an additional 38,683 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bahl & Gaynor Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Avient by 6.9% during the first quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 404,804 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,568,000 after acquiring an additional 26,135 shares during the period. 95.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AVNT. Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of Avient from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Avient from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $49.00 to $52.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Avient from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Avient from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $54.50.

Avient Trading Down 1.0 %

AVNT opened at $46.14 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $48.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $45.68. Avient Co. has a 1-year low of $27.73 and a 1-year high of $51.51. The company has a market cap of $4.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.48. The company has a current ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87.

Avient (NYSE:AVNT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.02. Avient had a return on equity of 10.56% and a net margin of 4.66%. The company had revenue of $815.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $797.50 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.57 earnings per share. Avient’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Avient Co. will post 2.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Avient Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.34%. This is an increase from Avient’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Avient’s payout ratio is currently 66.67%.

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.