Jennison Associates LLC Acquires New Holdings in Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA)

Jennison Associates LLC bought a new stake in Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 29,236 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,133,000.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AVA. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Avista by 109.6% in the second quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 34,015 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,177,000 after acquiring an additional 17,784 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its position in shares of Avista by 383.0% during the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 27,941 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $967,000 after purchasing an additional 22,156 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Avista by 9.0% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 420,527 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $16,295,000 after buying an additional 34,829 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Avista in the second quarter valued at $5,638,000. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its stake in Avista by 0.4% during the second quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 3,551,460 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $122,916,000 after buying an additional 13,445 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.24% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Avista in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $37.00 price target on the stock.

Insider Activity at Avista

In other Avista news, VP David J. Meyer sold 2,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.32, for a total transaction of $91,968.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 5,436 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $208,307.52. The trade was a 30.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.96% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Avista Price Performance

NYSE AVA opened at $39.13 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.59, a P/E/G ratio of 4.27 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a current ratio of 0.75. The business’s fifty day moving average is $37.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $37.33. Avista Co. has a 1 year low of $31.91 and a 1 year high of $39.99.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.23 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.13 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $383.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $389.29 million. Avista had a return on equity of 7.83% and a net margin of 10.24%. Avista’s revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.19 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Avista Co. will post 2.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Avista Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 26th will be issued a dividend of $0.475 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 26th. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.86%. Avista’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.