StockNews.com Downgrades Avista (NYSE:AVA) to Sell

StockNews.com downgraded shares of Avista (NYSE:AVA) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday.

Separately, Guggenheim raised Avista from a sell rating to a neutral rating and set a $34.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, January 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Avista currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $35.00.

Avista Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE AVA opened at $37.30 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $34.47 and its 200-day moving average price is $34.36. Avista has a 52-week low of $30.53 and a 52-week high of $44.76. The company has a market cap of $2.92 billion, a PE ratio of 15.48 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.00 by ($0.09). Avista had a return on equity of 7.65% and a net margin of 9.96%. The company had revenue of $594.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $469.34 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.73 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 29.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Avista will post 2.46 EPS for the current year.

Avista Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 23rd will be paid a $0.475 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 22nd. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.09%. Avista’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 78.84%.

Institutional Trading of Avista

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AVA. Jackson Creek Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Avista in the fourth quarter worth $935,000. Algert Global LLC bought a new position in Avista in the 3rd quarter worth $966,000. D.A. Davidson & CO. purchased a new stake in Avista in the 3rd quarter worth $3,175,000. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D raised its holdings in Avista by 30.4% during the third quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 74,468 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,411,000 after acquiring an additional 17,373 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of Avista by 13.2% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,820,958 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $58,944,000 after acquiring an additional 212,343 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.24% of the company’s stock.

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.