Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) Shares Purchased by Nisa Investment Advisors LLC

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) by 16.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 96,959 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 13,431 shares during the quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Avista were worth $3,552,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC purchased a new position in shares of Avista during the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,761,000. Hennessy Advisors Inc. grew its position in Avista by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 25,772 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $944,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its stake in Avista by 18.3% in the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 16,199 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $593,000 after purchasing an additional 2,504 shares during the period. San Luis Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Avista in the fourth quarter valued at about $685,000. Finally, Columbia Advisory Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Avista by 14.4% in the fourth quarter. Columbia Advisory Partners LLC now owns 9,409 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $345,000 after buying an additional 1,183 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.24% of the company’s stock.

Avista Stock Performance

NYSE:AVA opened at $36.00 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.48. The firm has a market cap of $2.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.49. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $37.03 and its 200 day moving average price is $37.68. Avista Co. has a 1-year low of $31.91 and a 1-year high of $39.99.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.13 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $383.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $389.29 million. Avista had a net margin of 10.24% and a return on equity of 7.83%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.19 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Avista Co. will post 2.3 EPS for the current year.

Avista Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 26th were paid a dividend of $0.475 per share. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 26th. Avista’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 75.70%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Avista in a report on Monday, December 9th. They set a “hold” rating and a $40.00 price target on the stock.

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.