Jones Financial Companies Lllp Buys Shares of 4,809 Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA)

Jones Financial Companies Lllp bought a new stake in Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 4,809 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $176,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AVA. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Avista by 117.8% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 858 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 464 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP raised its position in shares of Avista by 296.7% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 956 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 715 shares during the period. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Avista by 45.3% during the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 1,462 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $54,000 after purchasing an additional 456 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its position in shares of Avista by 43.0% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,723 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $63,000 after purchasing an additional 518 shares during the period. Finally, Eastern Bank raised its position in shares of Avista by 309.3% during the fourth quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 1,842 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $67,000 after purchasing an additional 1,392 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.24% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Avista

In other news, VP Scott J. Kinney sold 2,298 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.75, for a total transaction of $89,047.50. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 12,539 shares in the company, valued at $485,886.25. This represents a 15.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.96% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Avista Trading Up 2.5 %

NYSE AVA opened at $40.00 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.48. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $37.48 and its 200-day moving average is $37.67. Avista Co. has a one year low of $33.00 and a one year high of $40.23.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.86 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $517.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $487.48 million. Avista had a net margin of 10.24% and a return on equity of 7.83%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Avista Co. will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Avista Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 26th were paid a $0.49 dividend. This is a boost from Avista’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 26th. This represents a $1.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.90%. Avista’s payout ratio is presently 86.34%.

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.