CluenexAvantor AVTR
Avantor scores weak on business quality (2.8 of 10). Here is why, in plain words, and what our sealed record shows.
Why it matters
- What Avantor does
Avantor sells high-purity materials, reagents, and consumables to life sciences and clinical laboratories, making money when scientists and drug developers buy its proprietary chemicals for daily research.
- What it does best
Avantor delivers specialized scientific materials at global scale, producing $6.6B in revenue despite a gross margin of 31.8% that trails peers like TECH at 66.3%. Its breadth locks in researchers who rely on its single-source catalog for daily lab operations.
- The main risk
Heavy debt loads threaten financial stability, with total debt of $3.9B and a weak interest coverage ratio of 2.3x leaving little room for error if operational cash generation continues to contract.
Quality, check by check
Scored against its own industry, from company filings.
Operating margin sits at 7.5% and net margin is negative at -8.8%, accompanied by a -10.3% ROE. These compressed figures show the business currently struggles to expand margins as it scales.
Avantor holds a customer-lock moat built on proprietary lab consumables and reagent supply chains. Its gross margin ranks in the 13th percentile of its sector, showing limited pricing power.
Revenue is contracting at a 3.4% rate, down to $6.6B from $7.5B in 2022. This negative growth sits in the bottom decile of its sector at the 2nd percentile.
Total debt sits at $3.9B against just $365M in cash, with interest coverage at 2.3x making debt servicing a heavy burden. Free cash flow shrank to $455M, getting steadily softer.
Insiders
Executives and directors, from SEC Form 4 filings we read ourselves. Open market trades only; grants, option exercises and pre-planned sales left out.
No open market buys or unplanned sales by executives or directors.
Our sealed record on AVTR
Verdicts appear here 30 days after we publish them; members see today's. Each one is in the nightly ledger, fingerprinted the night it was made.
The first sealed verdicts appear here on Oct 11, 2026.
Questions
Avantor scores weak on the Cluenex quality check (2.8 of 10), measured against its own industry. Profitability is weak, moat weak, growth slow and financial health weak.
In the last 90 days of SEC Form 4 filings: No open market buys or unplanned sales by executives or directors.
Oct 28, 2026, before the open.
See AVTR today
- Today's verdict on AVTR, and why
- Fair value with cautious, base and optimistic cases
- The exact price that would change the verdict
- Which stocks each signal names, the night it fires
Cite this page: Cluenex, “Avantor (AVTR)”, https://cluenex.com/stocks/avtr/, data as of Oct 10, 2026.