What Happened?

Shares of life sciences company Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) fell 9.4% in the afternoon session after the company reported weak fourth quarter results. Its revenue missed and its organic revenue fell slightly short of Wall Street's estimates. Despite the return to organic growth and margin improvements enabling the company to beat analysts' EBITDA and earnings estimates, markets seem unimpressed. The top line miss indicates the bar set for the company is high, and as the company recovers from weaknesses in some end markets, it remains to be seen if the turnaround will continue. Overall, this was a weaker quarter.

The shares closed the day at $19.16, down 11.6% from previous close.

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What The Market Is Telling Us

Avantor’s shares are not very volatile and have only had 5 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful, although it might not be something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.

Avantor is down 7.9% since the beginning of the year, and at $19.53 per share, it is trading 29.5% below its 52-week high of $27.70 from September 2024. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Avantor’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $1,115.

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