Avista Corporation $AVA Shares Sold by ProShare Advisors LLC

ProShare Advisors LLC cut its position in Avista Corporation (NYSE:AVA) by 8.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 168,791 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 15,029 shares during the quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC owned 0.21% of Avista worth $6,505,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. HighTower Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Avista by 698.6% in the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 185,532 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $7,150,000 after buying an additional 162,300 shares in the last quarter. Intrua Financial LLC grew its stake in shares of Avista by 12.8% in the fourth quarter. Intrua Financial LLC now owns 16,970 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $654,000 after buying an additional 1,923 shares in the last quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL grew its stake in shares of Avista by 23.1% in the fourth quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 507,304 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $19,551,000 after buying an additional 95,060 shares in the last quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC grew its stake in shares of Avista by 9.0% in the fourth quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 458,300 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $17,663,000 after buying an additional 37,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AlphaCore Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Avista in the fourth quarter valued at $382,000. 85.24% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AVA has been the subject of a number of research reports. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Avista from $41.00 to $39.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Zacks Research cut Avista from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. Wall Street Zen raised Avista from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 18th. Barclays dropped their price objective on Avista from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, KeyCorp reaffirmed a “sector weight” rating on shares of Avista in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Avista presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $40.00.

Avista Trading Up 1.3%

AVA opened at $41.47 on Friday. Avista Corporation has a 12 month low of $35.50 and a 12 month high of $43.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.52, a PEG ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 0.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.60. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $40.67 and a 200 day moving average price of $40.34.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.10 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.04 by $0.06. Avista had a return on equity of 7.65% and a net margin of 10.75%.The firm had revenue of $570.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $643.55 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. Avista’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. Avista has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.520-2.720 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Avista Corporation will post 2.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Avista Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 12th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.4925 per share. This represents a $1.97 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 19th. Avista’s payout ratio is presently 78.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Avista

In other Avista news, SVP Wayne O. Manuel sold 1,593 shares of Avista stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.98, for a total transaction of $65,281.14. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 10,521 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $431,150.58. The trade was a 13.15% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Bryan Alden Cox sold 1,768 shares of Avista stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.18, for a total value of $71,038.24. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 8,401 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $337,552.18. This trade represents a 17.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 3,916 shares of company stock valued at $158,408 over the last three months. 0.78% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Avista

Avista Corporation operates as an integrated energy company providing electric and natural gas delivery services to residential, commercial and industrial customers in the Pacific Northwest. Through its regulated utility operations, the company maintains and upgrades an extensive transmission and distribution network, delivering reliable energy to approximately 400,000 electric customers and 324,000 natural gas customers across Washington, Oregon and Idaho. In addition to its core utility business, Avista invests in owned generation assets, including hydroelectric, natural gas–fired, coal and wind facilities, to support system reliability and long-term supply planning.

Founded in 1889 as the Spokane and Inland Empire Water Power Company, the business adopted the Avista name in 1999 to reflect its growing energy portfolio and strategic focus on innovation.