Specialty Chemicals company Avantor is taking Wall Street by surprise today, falling to $19.89 and marking a -3.6% change compared to the S&P 500, which moved 2.5%. AVTR is -24.57% below its average analyst target price of $26.37, which implies there is more upside for the stock.
As such, the average analyst rates it at buy. Over the last year, Avantor has underperfomed the S&P 500 by -25.0%, moving -43.6%.
Avantor, Inc. provides products and services to customers in biopharma, healthcare, education and government, advanced technologies, and applied materials industries in the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The company belongs to the basic materials sector, which includes the chemical, coal, mining, aluminum, and steel industries. The demand for these materials is dependent on economic cycles: when the economy is growing, companies across all sectors ramp up production, which increases demand from basic materials companies.
Conversely, when the economy slows down, demand for these materials decreases. The stock prices of this sector tend to follow the ebbs and flows of these demand cycles — but accurately predicting where we are presently in the economic cycle is a matter of intense debate.
Avantor's trailing 12 month P/E ratio is 20.7, based on its trailing EPS of $0.96. The company has a forward P/E ratio of 14.1 according to its forward EPS of $1.41 -- which is an estimate of what its earnings will look like in the next quarter. The P/E ratio is the company's share price divided by its earnings per share. In other words, it represents how much investors are willing to spend for each dollar of the company's earnings (revenues minus the cost of goods sold, taxes, and overhead). As of the third quarter of 2022, the basic materials sector has an average P/E ratio of 8.57, and the average for the S&P 500 is 15.97.
An analysis of the company's gross profit margins can help us understand its long term profitability and market position. Gross profits are the company's revenue minus the cost of goods only, and unlike earnings, don't take into account taxes and overhead. Here's an overview of Avantor's gross profit margin trends:
| Date Reported | Revenue ($ MM) | Cost of Revenue ($ MM) | Gross Margins (%) | YoY Growth (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-12-31 | 7,386 | 4,883 | 33.88 | 4.12 |
| 2020-12-31 | 6,394 | 4,313 | 32.54 | 2.33 |
| 2019-12-31 | 6,040 | 4,120 | 31.8 | n/a |
- Average gross margin: 32.7 %
- Average gross margin growth rate: 3.2 %
- Coefficient of variability (lower numbers indicating more stability): 3.2 %
Avantor's gross margins indicate that its underlying business is viable, and that the stock is potentially worthy for investment -- as opposed to speculative -- purposes.
When we subtract capital expenditures from operating cash flows, we are left with the company's free cash flow, which for Avantor was $842,500,000.00 as of its last annual report. This represents the amount of money that is available for reinvesting in the business, or for paying out to investors in the form of a dividend. With its strong cash flows, AVTR is in a position to do either -- which can encourage more investors to place their capital in the company. Over the last four years, the company's free cash flow has been growing at a rate of 92.1% and has on average been $671,033,333.30.
Value investors often analyze stocks through the lens of its Price to Book (P/B) Ratio (its share price divided by its book value). The book value refers to the present value of the company if the company were to sell off all of its assets and pay all of its debts today - a number whose value may differ significantly depending on the accounting method. Avantor's P/B ratio is 2.9 -- in other words, the market value of the company exceeds its book value by a factor of more than 2, so the company's assets may be overvalued compared to the average P/B ratio of the Basic Materials sector, which stands at 1.86 as of the third quarter of 2022.
Avantor is likely fairly valued at today's prices because it has an inflated P/E ratio, an average P/B ratio, and a steady stream of positive cash flows with an upwards trend. The stock has strong growth indicators because of its consistent operating margins with a positive growth rate, and an above average PEG ratio. We hope this preliminary analysis will encourage you to do your own research into AVTR's fundamental values — especially their trends over the last few years, which provide the clearest picture of the company's valuation.
