Avient

AVNT on NYSE. Avient sells engineered materials, fibers, composites and colorants to manufacturers. Market value $3.8bn.

Watch this stockFree. We tell you when something changes.

Price checks use the past 12 months to June 2026. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to December 2025.

Should I look at this?

Worth a closer look

Read what could go wrong

This is not advice. Check the numbers below.

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Cash yield
past 12 months to June 2026
5.0%fair

For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $5.01 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.

Price to profit
past 12 months to June 2026
16.7×full

You pay 16.7 years of operating profit for the business. The average large US company costs around 18.

Return on capital
five annual reports to December 2025
5.0%five-year median

Each dollar kept in the business earns 5 cents a year. Above 10 is good.

Quality score: 76 of 100. Price score: 77 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.

$41.49 a share, 51% above its 1-year low

Over the past year the price has ranged from $27.48 to $46.64.

Dividend: 2.6% a year

Paid every year for at least 5 years

Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).

Five years of cash, in billions

0.1
0.3
0.1
0.1
0.2
0.2
2021202220232024202512 monthsto Jun '26
Revenue
$3.3bn$3.4bn$3.1bn$3.2bn$3.3bn
Operating margin
8.4%7.2%6.3%10.2%6.2%
Debt to equity
1.050.930.900.890.81
Shares outstanding
0.09bn0.09bn0.09bn0.09bn0.09bn

Health checks

  • Free cash flow positive5 of 5 years
  • Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Nothing unusual
  • Financial strength (Piotroski)5 of 8 checks we could run
  • Profit backed by cash (accruals)Yes
  • Debt0.81× equity
  • Revenue growth, five yearsSlow, 8.0% a year
  • Buying back its own sharesRoughly flat

The quarter to June 2026

How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.

  • Sales: $917 million last quarter, up 6% on a year ago.
  • Profit: $65 million, up 23% on a year ago.
  • It keeps 9 cents of each $1 of sales as operating profit, up from 8 cents a year earlier.
  • Spare cash over the past 12 months: $191 million, up from $150 million.
  • About the same number of shares as a year ago.
  • Debt is $1.5 billion more than cash, about the same as a year ago.
  • Sales grew on a year ago in 3 of the last 4 quarters.
Sales by quarter
Sales by quarter
Quarter toAmount
September 2024$815m
December 2024$747m
March 2025$827m
June 2025$867m
September 2025$807m
December 2025$761m
March 2026$847m
June 2026$917m
Profit by quarter
Profit by quarter
Quarter toAmount
September 2024$38m
December 2024$48m
March 2025-$20m
June 2025$53m
September 2025$33m
December 2025$17m
March 2026$56m
June 2026$65m

From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.

Dates

Next results (estimated)
n/a
Last annual report (10-K)
17 February 2026
Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
5 November 2026

Who owns it

3 long-term investors we follow own it, unchanged from 3 last quarter. 347 funds in all.

Jun '25
Dec '25
Jun '26
Largest holders overall

From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.

Big holders and activists

3 investors own more than 5%.

From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.

What insiders did

No insider bought or sold on the open market in the last 12 months.

From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.

Warning signs in its filings

Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.

None of the warning signs we check for were found.

We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.

We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 17 Feb 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 6 Aug 2026 and 4 later 8-Ks.

A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.

What could go wrong

Cheap for a reason is the question the numbers cannot answer.

Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.

What changed in the risks this year

Companies must list what could hurt them each year. These are the parts that changed since last year’s report.

  • Changes to foreign trade policy, including new or increased tariffs and changing import/export regulations, could adversely affect our operating results, and the impacts could be material.

    Could happen
    Changes in foreign trade policy, regulatory or economic conditions or in laws governing international trade could materially adversely affect our business. The U.S. has instituted certain changes, and may propose additional changes, in trade policies that include the negotiation or termination of trade agreements, the imposition of higher tariffs on goods exported from the U.S. or imported into the U.S., and other government regulations affecting trade between the U.S. and other countries (such as Canada, Mexico, China, and the European Union) where we conduct our business. Global trade disruption or significant introduction of trade barriers, together with any future downturns in the global economy, could further materially and adversely affect our financial performance.
    Read more
  • Avient may be subject to risks relating to changes in tax rates, changes in global tax laws and regulations, or exposure to additional income tax liabilities.

    Could happen
    Avient is subject to income taxes in many jurisdictions around the world. Income tax liabilities are subject to the allocation of income among various tax jurisdictions. Our effective tax rate could be affected materially by changes in the mix among earnings in countries with differing statutory tax rates, changes in the valuation allowance of deferred tax assets, or changes in tax legislation, regulations, and policies. The amount of income taxes paid is subject to ongoing audits and litigation by tax authorities in the countries in which we operate. If these audits and/or litigation result in assessments different from amounts reserved, future financial results may include material unfavorable adjustments to our tax liabilities and cash taxes.
    Read more
  • Changes to foreign trade policy, including new or increased tariffs and changing import/export regulations, could adversely affect our operating results, and the impacts could be material.

    Could happen
    As a result of policy changes and government proposals, there may be greater restrictions and economic disincentives on international trade. The new tariffs and other changes in U.S. trade policy have triggered retaliatory actions by affected countries, and foreign governments have instituted or are considering imposing tariffs and trade sanctions. Such changes have the potential to adversely impact the global economy, our industry and the global demand for our products, and as a result, could have a negative impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
    Read more
  • We are currently involved in various legal proceedings, and may be subject to future claims or other liability that could negatively impact our business and results of operations.

    Could happen
    From time to time, we are involved in various legal proceedings or in commercial disputes and other legal and regulatory proceedings related to our business. Additionally, our development, manufacture and sale of specialty materials, including those sold to medical, automotive, consumer packaging, and construction end markets, involves risk of exposure to product liability claims, warranty claims, product recalls and related adverse publicity. While management establishes reserves based on assessments of the contingencies related to legal claims asserted against the Company, subsequent developments may affect such assessments and our estimates of the loss contingency and require payments in excess of the Company's reserves. An adverse judgment or significant product liability, warranty, or recall action could result in substantial expenditures, affect consumer confidence in our products and divert management's attention from other matters. While we maintain product liability insurance, insurance coverage may not be adequate.
    Read more
  • Failure to develop new products and protect our intellectual property could negatively impact our future performance and growth.

    Could happen
    Innovation and product development are foundational to our strategy and important to our future growth. Failure to create or acquire new technologies and new products could negatively impact our ability to deliver strong financial results. We may face challenges in customer qualification and adoption of new technologies, and failure of our products to work as predicted could lead to liability and damage to customer relationships and our reputation. We continually apply for and obtain U.S. and foreign patents to protect the results of our research and development efforts. Failure to protect our intellectual property could negatively affect our future performance and growth.
    Read more

Read it in the annual report

The deep dive

Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.

  • What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
  • Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
  • The three things that would make this a mistake
  • Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
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Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.