Brokerages unanimously recommend Avient Co. (NYSE:AVNT) as a “Moderate Buy.”

According to Bloomberg.com, the nine brokerages currently covering the company have given the company an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” for the company’s stock. This assessment was made about Avient Co. (NYSE: AVNT). Two analysts have recommended to investors that the stock be held, while two other analysts have provided a rating of “buy” for the stock. For the underlying asset, the average price target that brokerages set over the previous year are $44.00, which will be used for the next twelve months.

AVANT has received recent reports from a variety of different brokerage companies. On Monday, November 7, Morgan Stanley released a research note that lowered their target price on Avient shares from $37.00 to $34.00 and rated the company as “equal weight.” In a research report published on November 3, Wells Fargo & Company said they would lower their price target for Avient shares from $38.00 to $33.00. This change was made in response to the company’s expectation that the stock price would continue to decline. TheStreet lowered their rating on Avient shares from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report published on Monday, October 24. The report was dated. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on Avient shares from $40.00 to $35.00 in a research note published on Thursday, November 3. In a research report published on Thursday, December 15, Citigroup increased their price objective for Avient shares from $32.00 to $41.00 and upgraded the company from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating. Both of these moves were made about the company’s stock.

AVANT share prices started the trading week at $37.87, which was the opening price on Monday. The current ratio has a value of 1.28, the quick ratio has a value of 0.99, and the debt-to-equity ratio has a value of 1.44. All three ratios are presented in the table below. The price of the company’s stock has had a moving average of $33.29 for the past fifty days, and the price has had a moving average of $37.30 for the past two hundred days. During the previous year, the price of Avient ranged from a low of $27.65 to a high of $56.54 at various points. Both the earnings-to-price ratio of the stock, which is 18.56, and its beta value, which is 1.49, are very high. The company has a market capitalization of $3.44 billion at present.

The most recent quarterly results report for Avient (NYSE: AVNT) was made available to the general public on November 2, 2018. Earnings per share for the company came in at $0.59 for the quarter, which was below the $0.61 forecast provided by industry analysts by a margin of $0.05 for the quarter, which was below the $0.61 forecast provided by industry analysts. The company’s sales for the quarter came in at $823.30 million, which is significantly lower than the consensus expectation of $850.82 million predicted by the market. Avient achieved a return on equity of 16.11%, and the net margin for the company was 4.08%. The rise in revenue for the quarter was 0.6% higher than during the same quarter of the previous year. The company generated $0.70 per share during the same period the year before. According to projections made by analysts in the relevant industry, Avant is expected to generate earnings of $2.89 per share in 2018.

The company just recently declared and distributed a quarterly dividend, which was paid out on January 6 of this year. In addition, the company just recently announced and distributed a dividend. On Friday, December 16, $0.2475 dividend payments per share were mailed out to stockholders who already had their information on file. This translates to a dividend payment of $0.99 per share and a yield of 2.61% when expressed in terms of an annualized yield. The ex-dividend day occurred on December 15, a Thursday just a few days ago. Event has increased the dividend that it pays out every quarter to $0.24. At this time, the dividend payout ratio for Avient stands at 48.53 percent.

Due to recent occurrences, institutional investors and hedge funds have either increased or decreased their ownership interests in the company, which has resulted in both scenarios. Trust Financial Corporation’s holdings in Avient saw a 0.7 percent increase during the second quarter due to the company’s investment. Trust Financial Corp. now directly owns 335,988 shares, valued at $13,467,000, after purchasing an additional 2,369 shares during the relevant period. The Louisiana State Employees Retirement System contributed approximately 688 thousand dollars toward acquiring a new investment in Avient during the third quarter of the fiscal year. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC increased the proportion of Avient in which it is invested by 22.1% during the second quarter. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC now holds 39,458 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,149 shares during the most recent quarter. The value of Chartwell Investment Partners LLC’s current stock holdings is $1,581,000. The Bank of America Corp.’s DE investment portfolio saw an 8.8 percent increase in its holdings of Avient during the first three months of 2018. Bank of America Corp. is the current owner of 754,190 shares of the company’s stock. The total value of these shares comes to $36,200,000. This increase in ownership is directly attributable to the acquisition of an additional 60,828 shares during the most recent fiscal quarter. And finally, during the second quarter, Scientist Management LP increased the total amount of money it had invested in Avient by 39.8 percent. Following the acquisition of a further 3,451 shares during the most recent fiscal quarter, Scientist Management LP now holds 12,128 shares of the company’s stock, collectively valued at $518,000. Most of the company’s stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds, which account for 93.81 percent of the total.

The United States of America, Canada, Mexico, Europe, and South America are just some of the Americas that benefit from Avient Corporation’s expertise as a leading provider of specialized formulators, services, and environmentally friendly material solutions. Avant is also present in the Asian market. The company’s operations are broken up into three distinct divisions: color, additives, and inks; specialty engineered materials; and distribution. To be utilized in thermoplastics, thermoset dispersions, and specialized inks, colors, additives, and inks offer specified color and additive concentrations in solid and liquid form.