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Investors Who Bought Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) Shares A Year Ago Are Now Up 22%

These days it's easy to simply buy an index fund, and your returns should (roughly) match the market. But investors can boost returns by picking market-beating companies to own shares in. To wit, the Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) share price is 22% higher than it was a year ago, much better than the market decline of around 2.8% (not including dividends) in the same period. That's a solid performance by our standards! Note that businesses generally develop over the long term, so the returns over the last year might not reflect a long term trend.

View our latest analysis for Avantor

Given that Avantor didn't make a profit in the last twelve months, we'll focus on revenue growth to form a quick view of its business development. Shareholders of unprofitable companies usually expect strong revenue growth. That's because fast revenue growth can be easily extrapolated to forecast profits, often of considerable size.

In the last year Avantor saw its revenue grow by 2.6%. That's not great considering the company is losing money. In keeping with the revenue growth, the share price gained 22% in that time. That's not a standout result, but it is solid - much like the level of revenue growth. Given the market doesn't seem too excited about the stock, a closer look at the financial data could pay off, if you can find indications of a stronger growth trend in the future.

The image below shows how earnings and revenue have tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

NYSE:AVTR Income Statement May 15th 2020
NYSE:AVTR Income Statement May 15th 2020

Avantor is well known by investors, and plenty of clever analysts have tried to predict the future profit levels. Given we have quite a good number of analyst forecasts, it might be well worth checking out this free chart depicting consensus estimates.

A Different Perspective

It's nice to see that Avantor shareholders have gained 22% over the last year. We regret to report that the share price is down 0.3% over ninety days. Shorter term share price moves often don't signify much about the business itself. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 1 warning sign with Avantor , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.

For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on US exchanges.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.