Avista (NYSE:AVA) Reaches New 12-Month High – Should You Buy?

Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) hit a new 52-week high on Saturday . The company traded as high as $41.01 and last traded at $40.90, with a volume of 2423822 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $40.04.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on Avista from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th.

Avista Price Performance

The company’s 50-day moving average price is $38.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $37.76. 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 company has a market capitalization of $3.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.46.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.86 by ($0.02). Avista had a net margin of 10.24% and a return on equity of 7.83%. The company had revenue of $517.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $487.48 million. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Avista Co. will post 2.3 EPS for the current year.

Avista Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 26th were issued a dividend of $0.49 per share. This is a boost from Avista’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. This represents a $1.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.79%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 26th. Avista’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 86.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Avista

In other Avista news, VP Scott J. Kinney sold 2,298 shares of Avista stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.75, for a total value of $89,047.50. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 12,539 shares in the company, valued at $485,886.25. The trade was a 15.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.96% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Avista by 2.2% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,228,299 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $47,597,000 after buying an additional 26,706 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Avista by 30.7% during the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 176,459 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,838,000 after purchasing an additional 41,431 shares in the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. grew its holdings in shares of Avista by 12.2% during the 3rd quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 9,557 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $370,000 after purchasing an additional 1,041 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Avista by 4.2% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 17,430 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $675,000 after purchasing an additional 707 shares during the period. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in Avista by 18.1% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 49,575 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,921,000 after purchasing an additional 7,581 shares in the last quarter. 85.24% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.