New York State Teachers Retirement System Trims Stock Holdings in Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA)

New York State Teachers Retirement System lowered its position in shares of Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 125,695 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 500 shares during the quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System owned about 0.16% of Avista worth $4,871,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of AVA. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in Avista by 19.2% during the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 44,281 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,551,000 after acquiring an additional 7,125 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its position in shares of Avista by 140.8% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 92,319 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,233,000 after purchasing an additional 53,983 shares in the last quarter. SPC Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of Avista by 31.4% in the 1st quarter. SPC Financial Inc. now owns 9,200 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $322,000 after buying an additional 2,200 shares during the last quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp increased its position in Avista by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 67,712 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,371,000 after buying an additional 878 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. purchased a new position in Avista during the first quarter valued at $220,000. Institutional investors own 85.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Avista Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AVA opened at $37.23 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $38.12 and a 200 day moving average of $37.18. The company has a quick ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. Avista Co. has a twelve month low of $31.91 and a twelve month high of $39.99. The firm has a market cap of $2.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.07, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.47.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.29 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.07. Avista had a return on equity of 7.77% and a net margin of 10.12%. The company had revenue of $390.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $386.69 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.23 earnings per share. Avista’s revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Avista Co. will post 2.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP David J. Meyer sold 2,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 5,436 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $208,307.52. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.96% of the company’s stock.

Avista 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.