Avantor shares dip after William Blair analysts downgrade rating

Investing.com -- Avantor Inc (NYSE:AVTR) shares fell on Monday after a downgrade by William Blair, citing a challenging competitive environment.

The firm cut its rating to Market Perform from Outperform. Shares fell 3.5% and are down more than 2% so far this year.

The analysts said some recent acquisitions have underperformed, including a $160 million write-down from a reduction in fair-value for Ritter, a maker of robotic and liquid handling consumables. 

They said the underperformance has “constrained Avantor’s balance sheet at a time where we expect a number of high-quality life sciences assets to be available given the challenging macro.”

The Blair analysts said other bioprocessing companies likely made more capacity additions during the pandemic, “so while Avantor will likely bounce back with other bioprocessing names as the destock ends and ordering activity resumes, we see more long-term upside in other names on our list.”