Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) Shares Purchased by SPC Financial Inc.

SPC Financial Inc. boosted its position in Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) by 3.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 11,200 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the quarter. SPC Financial Inc.’s holdings in Avista were worth $410,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AVA. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. boosted its holdings in Avista by 7.3% in the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,330 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $245,000 after acquiring an additional 428 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its position in Avista by 75.2% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 14,775 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $573,000 after purchasing an additional 6,344 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in Avista by 16.3% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 8,706 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $337,000 after purchasing an additional 1,218 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in Avista by 7.3% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 21,518 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $828,000 after purchasing an additional 1,464 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Avista by 9.0% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 420,527 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $16,295,000 after purchasing an additional 34,829 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective 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 Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE AVA opened at $39.56 on Thursday. Avista Co. has a 1 year low of $33.00 and a 1 year high of $40.21. The firm has a market cap of $3.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.76, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.49. 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 stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $37.09 and its 200-day simple moving average is $37.64.

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

Avista Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 26th will be given a dividend of $0.49 per share. This represents a $1.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.95%. This is a positive change from Avista’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 26th. 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.