Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) Shares Purchased by Fmr LLC

Fmr LLC grew its holdings in shares of Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) by 4.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 17,430 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 707 shares during the quarter. Fmr LLC’s holdings in Avista were worth $675,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. acquired a new stake in Avista in the third quarter worth about $28,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Avista in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Avista in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $40,000. KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in shares of Avista by 46.9% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,098 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $81,000 after acquiring an additional 670 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC increased its stake in shares of Avista by 256.6% during the second quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 2,714 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $94,000 after acquiring an additional 1,953 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 85.24% of the company’s stock.

Avista Trading Up 0.7 %

Avista stock opened at $36.75 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $2.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.13 and a beta of 0.48. Avista Co. has a 1 year low of $31.91 and a 1 year high of $39.99. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $37.77 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $37.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a current ratio of 0.75.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.13 by $0.10. Avista had a return on equity of 7.83% and a net margin of 10.24%. The business had revenue of $383.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $389.29 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.19 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Avista Co. will post 2.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Avista Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 26th were given a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.17%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 26th. Avista’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 75.70%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on AVA. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Avista in a research note on Monday, December 9th. They set a “hold” rating and a $40.00 price target for the company. Bank of America assumed coverage on Avista in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $37.00 target price for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $36.75.

About Avista

Avista Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an electric and natural gas utility company. It operates in two segments, Avista Utilities and AEL&P. The Avista Utilities segment provides electric distribution and transmission, and natural gas distribution services in parts of eastern Washington and northern Idaho; and natural gas distribution services in parts of northeastern and southwestern Oregon, as well as generates electricity in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, and Montana.