Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund Buys New Stake in Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA)

Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund bought a new stake in Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 32,900 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,139,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Avista by 0.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,559,466 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $334,772,000 after acquiring an additional 33,431 shares in the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its stake in shares of Avista by 0.4% in the second quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 3,551,460 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $122,916,000 after acquiring an additional 13,445 shares in the last quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Avista by 10.1% in the first quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 1,904,651 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $66,701,000 after acquiring an additional 174,951 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Avista by 4.2% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,534,341 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $53,103,000 after acquiring an additional 61,466 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Avista by 95.4% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 709,707 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $25,365,000 after acquiring an additional 346,540 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.24% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 5,436 shares in the company, valued at approximately $208,307.52. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.96% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Avista Stock Performance

Shares of AVA stock opened at $37.17 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $38.45 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.69. The company has a market cap of $2.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.42, a PEG ratio of 3.29 and a beta of 0.47. Avista Co. has a 12 month low of $31.09 and a 12 month high of $39.99.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.29 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $390.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $386.69 million. Avista had a net margin of 10.12% and a return on equity of 7.77%. The company’s revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.23 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Avista Co. will post 2.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Avista Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.475 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 22nd. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.11%. Avista’s payout ratio is currently 78.84%.

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.