KBC Group NV Boosts Holdings in Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA)

KBC Group NV increased its holdings in Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) by 97.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,148 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,050 shares during the period. KBC Group NV’s holdings in Avista were worth $152,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AVA. Foundry Partners LLC bought a new stake in Avista in the third quarter worth $10,076,000. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC purchased a new position in shares of Avista in the third quarter worth about $5,838,000. NFJ Investment Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Avista in the 3rd quarter valued at about $4,963,000. Moody Aldrich Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Avista during the 3rd quarter valued at about $4,725,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in Avista by 46.0% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 374,207 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $14,501,000 after acquiring an additional 117,814 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on Avista from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th.

Avista Price Performance

Shares of Avista stock opened at $36.73 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.91 billion, a PE ratio of 14.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.49. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $36.68 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $37.70. The company has a quick ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. Avista Co. has a 12-month low of $31.91 and a 12-month high of $39.99.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $383.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $389.29 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.19 EPS. Avista’s revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Avista Co. will post 2.3 EPS for the current year.

Avista Dividend Announcement

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

Avista Company Profile

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.