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Morgan Stanley Boosts Avient (AVNT) Price Forecast Following Q4 EPS Review

Avient Corporation (NYSE:AVNT) is included among the 13 Best Strong Buy Dividend Stocks to Invest in.

On February 17, Morgan Stanley raised its price recommendation on Avient Corporation (NYSE:AVNT) to $52 from $41. The firm maintained an Equal Weight rating on the shares. The revision came after the firm reviewed the company’s Q4 EPS and updated its valuation to reflect 2026 estimates. Morgan Stanley also issued a corrected note, increasing the target after its earlier report published on February 13.

During the Q4 2025 earnings call, President, CEO, and Chairman Ashish Khandpur said the company delivered strong results through disciplined execution and careful cost management. He also pointed to the benefit of a more favorable business mix. These factors helped expand adjusted EBITDA margins by 80 basis points and drove adjusted EPS growth of 14% in the fourth quarter.

He noted that adjusted EBITDA margins improved year over year in every quarter of 2025. This steady improvement reflected consistent operational performance. Organic sales declined slightly, down 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Even so, reported sales increased 1.9%, supported by favorable foreign exchange trends.

Khandpur also highlighted strength across several important end markets. Defense, health care, and telecom each delivered double-digit growth, showing continued demand. Packaging demand also began to recover. Sales in that segment increased in the low single digits during the fourth quarter, compared with a decline in the third quarter. For the full year, adjusted EBITDA reached $545 million in 2025, representing growth of 3.5% from the prior year. Adjusted EPS rose 6%, helped by lower interest costs and favorable currency movements.

Avient Corporation (NYSE:AVNT) provides materials solutions used across a wide range of industries. Its portfolio includes colorants, advanced composites, functional additives, engineered materials, and Dyneema, its ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene product.

While we acknowledge the potential of AVNT to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than AVNT and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 13 Best NASDAQ Dividend Stocks to Buy Now and 14 Best Low Volatility Dividend Stocks to Invest In

Disclosure: None.

The $250 Trillion AI Hype is Real. A few years from now, you’ll probably wish you’d bought this stock.

Dr. Inan Dogan

Dr. Ian Dogan

Co-Founder and Research Director at Insider Monkey

When Jeff Bezos said that one breakthrough technology would shape Amazon’s destiny, even Wall Street’s biggest analysts were caught off guard.

Fast forward a year and Amazon’s new CEO Andy Jassy described generative AI as a “once-in-a-lifetime” technology that is already being used across Amazon to reinvent customer experiences.

At the 8th Future Investment Initiative conference, Elon Musk predicted that by 2040 there would be at least 10 billion humanoid robots, with each priced between $20,000 and $25,000.

Do the math. According to Musk, this technology could be worth $250 trillion by 2040.

Put another way, that’s roughly equal to:

  • 175 Teslas
  • 107 Amazons
  • 140 Metas
  • 84 Googles
  • 65 Microsofts
  • And 55 Nvidias

And here’s the wild part — this $250 trillion wave isn’t tied to one company, but to an entire ecosystem of AI innovators set to reshape the global economy.

It’s a leap so massive, it could reshape how businesses, governments, and consumers operate worldwide.

Even if that $250 trillion figure sounds ambitious, major firms like PwC and McKinsey still see AI unlocking multi-trillion-dollar potential.

How could anything be worth that much?

The answer lies in a breakthrough so powerful it’s redefining how humanity works, learns, and creates.

And this breakthrough has already set off a frenzy among hedge funds and Wall Street’s top investors.

What most investors don’t realize is that one under-owned company holds the key to this $250 trillion revolution.

In fact, Verge argues this company’s supercheap AI technology should concern rivals.

Before I reveal the details, let’s talk about how some of the richest people on the planet are positioning themselves.

  • Bill Gates sees artificial intelligence as the “biggest technological advance in my lifetime,” more transformative than the internet or personal computer, capable of improving healthcare, education, and addressing climate change.
  • Larry Ellison — through Oracle, is spending billions on Nvidia chips and partnering with Cohere to embed generative AI across Oracle’s cloud and apps.
  • Warren Buffett — not known for tech hype — says this breakthrough could have a ‘hugely beneficial social impact.

When billionaires from Silicon Valley to Wall Street line up behind the same idea — you know it’s worth paying attention to.

Even as we admire what Tesla, Nvidia, Alphabet, and Microsoft have built, we believe an even greater opportunity lies elsewhere…

But the real story isn’t Nvidia — it’s a much smaller company quietly improving the critical technology that makes this entire revolution possible.

And judging by what I’m hearing from both Silicon Valley insiders and Wall Street veterans…

This prediction might not be bold at all:

A few years from now, you’ll wish you’d owned this stock.

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Dr. Inan Dogan

Dr. Ian Dogan

Co-Founder and Research Director at Insider Monkey

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Today, we have identified a nearly identical pattern in a digital-first giant trading at $3.

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