Avista Co. (AVA) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.48 on December 13th

Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, November 14th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 26th will be paid a dividend of 0.475 per share by the utilities provider on Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 26th.

Avista has increased its dividend payment by an average of 4.3% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 22 consecutive years. Avista has a dividend payout ratio of 74.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Avista to earn $2.52 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.90 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 75.4%.

Avista Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of AVA stock opened at $37.74 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.04, a PEG ratio of 4.07 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a current ratio of 0.75. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $37.94 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $37.25. Avista has a 52-week low of $31.91 and a 52-week high of $39.99.

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

Insider Transactions at Avista

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

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.