Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) Short Interest Update

Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,280,000 shares, a decline of 6.2% from the October 15th total of 2,430,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 454,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.0 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP David J. Meyer sold 2,400 shares of Avista stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.32, for a total transaction of $91,968.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 5,436 shares in the company, valued at approximately $208,307.52. The trade was a 30.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.96% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. acquired a new stake in Avista in the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Avista in the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in Avista in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $40,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new position in Avista during the 1st quarter worth $73,000. Finally, KBC Group NV boosted its position in Avista by 46.9% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,098 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $81,000 after buying an additional 670 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Bank of America started coverage on Avista in a report on Thursday, September 12th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $37.00 price objective on the stock.

Avista Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of Avista stock opened at $38.74 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.13 and a beta of 0.47. Avista has a 12-month low of $31.91 and a 12-month high of $39.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $37.93 and a 200 day simple moving average of $37.29.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.13 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $383.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $389.29 million. Avista had a net margin of 10.24% and a return on equity of 7.83%. Avista’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.19 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Avista will post 2.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Avista Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 26th will be paid a $0.475 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 26th. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.90%. Avista’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 75.70%.

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.