Moors & Cabot Inc. Purchases 390 Shares of Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA)

Moors & Cabot Inc. lifted its holdings in Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) by 4.0% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 10,031 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 390 shares during the period. Moors & Cabot Inc.’s holdings in Avista were worth $347,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in Avista in the 1st quarter valued at $27,000. Mather Group LLC. bought a new stake in shares of Avista in the first quarter valued at about $32,000. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Avista during the second quarter worth about $40,000. Quarry LP increased its stake in Avista by 67.9% during the fourth quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,179 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 477 shares during the period. Finally, EntryPoint Capital LLC bought a new position in Avista during the first quarter valued at about $73,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.24% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP David J. Meyer sold 2,400 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 5,436 shares in the company, valued at approximately $208,307.52. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.96% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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 Price Performance

Shares of Avista stock opened at $38.30 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.47. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $38.36 and its 200-day simple moving average is $36.32. Avista Co. has a twelve month low of $30.53 and a twelve month high of $39.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.88.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.29 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $386.69 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.23 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Avista Co. will post 2.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Avista Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.475 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 22nd. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.96%. Avista’s dividend payout ratio is currently 78.84%.

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.