Avantor
Avantor's revenue fell 3.4% to $6.6 billion in fiscal 2025. Its operating margin was −3.8%, down from 16.0% a year earlier. Free cash flow was $495 million, down 28.5%. It paid out $75 million in dividends and buybacks, 15% of free cash flow. The diluted share count fell 0.2%.
Operating margin is operating income as a share of revenue. Free cash flow is cash from operations minus capital spending. Return on capital is after-tax operating income as a share of the money invested in the business: debt plus equity, minus cash. Market cap is the last closing share price times the latest diluted share count, so it is approximate. P/E is the last close divided by diluted earnings per share over the last four quarters, or the latest fiscal year where the quarters aren't available; there is none when the company made a loss.
Charts show fiscal years, from the 10-K filings.
Revenue and margins
Net income and earnings per share
From fiscal 2020 to 2024, earnings per share grew 84.4% a year and net income 57.2% a year, as new shares raised the share count by 17% and diluted each share's earnings. Avantor then lost money in fiscal 2025.
Returns on capital
Cash flow
Payouts and share count
Valuation
Two ways to value Avantor yourself, both starting from its filings: a discounted cash flow model and the price-to-earnings method.
Discounted cash flow (DCF)
A discounted cash flow (DCF) model values a business as the cash it may generate in future, discounted back to today. The starting figures come from Avantor's 10-K (or, for net cash and shares, its latest 10-Q) and the assumptions are yours: start from one of three example scenarios, then change any figure to see what it implies for a share, and how that compares with the last share price.
Value per share on three example scenarios, from Avantor's fiscal 2025 free cash flow of $495M, net cash of −$3.6B at December 31, 2025 and 681 million diluted shares, from its filings. The scenarios are fitted to Avantor: the base scenario's growth in years 1 to 5 is its revenue growth over the last 3 years, -4.5% a year, kept between 0% and 20%; the cautious and optimistic ones are lower and higher, and growth in years 6 to 10 is halfway to the long-run rate. The base scenario's discount rate is 10%: 9% for a business of moderate risk (Life Sciences Tools & Services), plus 1 point for unsteady results (a loss in fiscal 2025); the cautious and optimistic ones use a point more and a point less. Select one to load it into the calculator. These are the model's arithmetic on those assumptions, not a forecast or a price target.
- Last close, October 26, 2026
- $17.29
- Value on these assumptions, against the last close
- —
- Cash flows in years 1 to 10, valued today
- —
- Everything after year 10, valued today
- —
- Plus net cash
- —
- Share of value from after year 10
How the value changes with two assumptions
Price-to-earnings (P/E) method
Another common way to value a company is to multiply its earnings per share by a price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple: the number of years of today's earnings an investor pays for a share. A higher multiple usually means investors expect earnings to grow. Choose a multiple, for example from similar companies, to see the value it gives.
The P/E method needs positive earnings, and Avantor's latest diluted earnings per share were negative or zero.
Balance sheet
| Fiscal year end | FY21 | FY22 | FY23 | FY24 | FY25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash and short-term investments | 302 | 373 | 263 | 262 | 365 |
| Debt incl. finance leases | 7,094 | 6,356 | 5,605 | 4,071 | 3,973 |
| Net debt (negative means net cash) | 6,793 | 5,984 | 5,342 | 3,809 | 3,608 |
| Net debt to EBITDA | 5.0x | 3.9x | 4.9x | 2.6x | 22.0x |
| Debt to equity | 1.7x | 1.3x | 1.1x | 0.7x | 0.7x |
| Interest coverage | 4.5x | 4.2x | 2.5x | 5.0x | −1.4x |
| Current ratio | 1.7x | 1.6x | 1.6x | 1.1x | 1.8x |
| Quick ratio | 1.1x | 1.1x | 1.1x | 0.7x | 1.2x |
Insider trades
Over the 12 months between October 27, 2025 and October 26, 2026, 5 insiders bought $8.7 million of Avantor shares on the open market, and none sold any.
| Date | Insider | Trade | Shares | Price | Value | Filing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 8, 2026 | Gregory T LucierDirector | Bought | 10,000 | $8.32 | $83,200 | Form 4 |
| May 1, 2026 | Simon DingemansDirector | Bought | 25,000 | $8.14 | $203,500 | Form 4 |
| Mar 10, 2026 | Sanjeev K MehraDirector | Bought | 125,000 | $8.01 | $1.0 million | Form 4 |
| Feb 19, 2026 | Gregory T LucierDirector | Bought | 50,000 | $9.16 | $458,000 | Form 4 |
| Feb 12, 2026 | Gregory L SummeDirector | Bought | 100,000 | $9.40 | $940,000 | Form 4 |
| Dec 5, 2025 | Sanjeev K MehraDirector | Bought | 350,000 | $11.09 | $3.9 million | Form 4 |
| Nov 17, 2025 | Emmanuel LignerPresident and CEO, Director | Bought | 87,500 | $11.35 | $993,125 | Form 4 |
| Oct 30, 2025 | Gregory L SummeDirector | Bought | 100,000 | $11.25 | $1.1 million | Form 4 |
Piotroski F-score
The F-score counts how many of nine simple tests of profitability, funding and efficiency a company passed in a year (Piotroski, 2000). The more tests passed, the stronger the year: 8 or 9 is strong, 0 to 2 weak. Companies that report no gross profit are scored on the other eight.
| Test | FY23 | FY24 | FY25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net income is positive | Pass | Pass | Fail |
| Cash from operations is positive | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| Return on assets rose | Fail | Pass | Fail |
| Cash from operations exceeds net income | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| Debt fell relative to assets | Pass | Pass | Fail |
| Current ratio rose | Pass | Fail | Pass |
| Share count didn't rise | Pass | Fail | Pass |
| Gross margin rose | Fail | Fail | Fail |
| Revenue rose relative to assets | Fail | Pass | Pass |
| F-score | 6 of 9 | 6 of 9 | 5 of 9 |
| Accruals ratio | −4.2% | −1.0% | −9.7% |
Compare
Put Avantor side by side with any other company we cover: revenue, growth, margins, cash flow and returns, with ten years of charts.
Similar companies
| Company | Year | Revenue growth | Operating margin | Free cash flow margin | Return on capital | Net debt to EBITDA | F-score | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avantor | FY25 | −3.4% | −3.8% | 7.5% | −2.0% | 22.0x | 5 | |
| Agilent Technologies | FY25 | 6.7% | 21.3% | 16.6% | 16.5% | 0.9x | 5 | Compare |
| Illumina | FY25 | −0.7% | 18.6% | 21.4% | 20.3% | 0.3x | 8 | Compare |
| Mettler Toledo | FY25 | 4.0% | — | 21.1% | 50.5% | 1.7x | 7 | Compare |
| Charles River Laboratories | FY25 | −0.8% | 0.6% | 12.9% | 0.4% | 4.5x | 4 | Compare |
9 years of figures
| Fiscal year | FY17 | FY18 | FY19 | FY20 | FY21 | FY22 | FY23 | FY24 | FY25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | |||||||||
| Revenue | 1,247 | 5,864 | 6,040 | 6,394 | 7,386 | 7,512 | 6,967 | 6,784 | 6,552 |
| Revenue growth | — | 370.1% | 3.0% | 5.8% | 15.5% | 1.7% | −7.3% | −2.6% | −3.4% |
| Gross profit | 433 | 1,820 | 1,921 | 2,080 | 2,503 | 2,603 | 2,364 | 2,279 | 2,139 |
| Research and development | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Operating income | −210 | 414 | 552 | 707 | 972 | 1,130 | 696 | 1,085 | −246 |
| Net income | −113 | −87 | 38 | 117 | 573 | 686 | 321 | 712 | −530 |
| Diluted EPS (US$) | −2.75 | −2.69 | −0.84 | 0.09 | 0.85 | 1.01 | 0.47 | 1.04 | −0.78 |
| Diluted shares (millions) | 151 | 133 | 401 | 583 | 600 | 679 | 678 | 682 | 681 |
| Cash flow | |||||||||
| Cash from operations | −168 | 200 | 354 | 930 | 954 | 844 | 870 | 841 | 624 |
| Capital expenditure | 25 | 38 | 52 | 62 | 111 | 133 | 146 | 149 | 129 |
| Free cash flow | −193 | 163 | 302 | 868 | 842 | 710 | 724 | 692 | 495 |
| Dividends paid | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Share buybacks | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 75 |
| Acquisitions | 6,661 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4,014 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Stock-based compensation | 48 | 18 | 68 | 44 | 51 | 46 | 40 | 47 | 46 |
| Balance sheet at fiscal year end | |||||||||
| Cash and short-term investments | 188 | 185 | 187 | 287 | 302 | 373 | 263 | 262 | 365 |
| Debt incl. finance leases | — | 6,925 | 5,176 | 4,965 | 7,094 | 6,356 | 5,605 | 4,071 | 3,973 |
| Total assets | — | 9,912 | 9,773 | 9,906 | 13,897 | 13,464 | 12,973 | 12,114 | 11,795 |
| Total liabilities | — | 9,104 | 7,311 | 7,232 | 9,700 | 8,609 | 7,720 | 6,158 | 6,230 |
| Shareholders' equity | −2,620 | −3,052 | 2,462 | 2,674 | 4,197 | 4,855 | 5,253 | 5,957 | 5,565 |
| Margins and ratios | |||||||||
| Gross margin | 34.7% | 31.0% | 31.8% | 32.5% | 33.9% | 34.6% | 33.9% | 33.6% | 32.6% |
| Operating margin | −16.9% | 7.0% | 9.1% | 11.1% | 13.2% | 15.0% | 10.0% | 16.0% | −3.8% |
| Net margin | −9.0% | −1.5% | 0.6% | 1.8% | 7.8% | 9.1% | 4.6% | 10.5% | −8.1% |
| Free cash flow margin | −15.4% | 2.8% | 5.0% | 13.6% | 11.4% | 9.4% | 10.4% | 10.2% | 7.5% |
| Return on capital | — | — | 9.2% | 9.6% | 8.1% | 8.3% | 5.1% | 8.9% | −2.0% |
| Return on equity | — | — | — | 4.5% | 16.7% | 15.2% | 6.3% | 12.7% | −9.2% |
| Return on assets | — | — | 0.4% | 1.2% | 4.8% | 5.0% | 2.4% | 5.7% | −4.4% |
| Net debt to EBITDA | — | 8.2x | 5.2x | 4.2x | 5.0x | 3.9x | 4.9x | 2.6x | 22.0x |