Bank of America Corporation Lowers Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT) to Underperform

Bank of America Corporation lowered shares of Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT) from a neutral rating to an underperform rating in a research note published on Friday, July 14th, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has $40.00 target price on the technology company’s stock, down from their previous target price of $44.00.

Other research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Zacks Investment Research lowered shares of Avnet from a hold rating to a strong sell rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 2nd. BidaskClub upgraded shares of Avnet from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Monday, July 3rd. Deutsche Bank AG reaffirmed a hold rating and set a $40.00 price objective (down from $47.00) on shares of Avnet in a research note on Saturday, April 29th. SunTrust Banks, Inc. downgraded shares of Avnet from a buy rating to a hold rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $53.00 to $39.00 in a research note on Friday, April 28th. Finally, Longbow Research downgraded shares of Avnet from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, April 28th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Avnet has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $42.22.

Avnet (NYSE AVT) opened at 38.20 on Friday. Avnet has a 52-week low of $35.96 and a 52-week high of $51.50. The firm has a market cap of $4.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.18 and a beta of 1.04. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $38.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $42.05.

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In related news, Director James A. Lawrence purchased 408,451 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 2nd. The stock was bought at an average cost of $36.99 per share, with a total value of $15,108,602.49. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 416,549 shares in the company, valued at $15,408,147.51. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kevin M. Moriarty acquired 6,933 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 18th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $36.08 per share, for a total transaction of $250,142.64. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Avnet by 5,261.5% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 12,121,222 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $554,666,000 after buying an additional 11,895,142 shares during the period. Pzena Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Avnet by 39.1% in the second quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 7,583,434 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $294,844,000 after buying an additional 2,133,389 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Avnet during the fourth quarter worth $62,570,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Avnet by 32.3% in the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,289,239 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $150,516,000 after buying an additional 803,409 shares during the period. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN boosted its stake in shares of Avnet by 1,147.3% in the first quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 852,435 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $39,007,000 after buying an additional 784,095 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.02% of the company’s stock.

About Avnet

Avnet, Inc is a distributor of electronic components, enterprise computer, networking and storage products and software, and embedded subsystems. The Company operates through Electronics Marketing (EM) segment. The EM segment markets and sells semiconductors; interconnect, passive and electromechanical devices (IP&E), and embedded products to a customer base serving various end markets.