Avista (NYSE:AVA) Sees Large Volume Increase – Time to Buy?

Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) shares saw unusually-strong trading volume on Friday . Approximately 713,739 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 42% from the previous session’s volume of 502,632 shares.The stock last traded at $40.39 and had previously closed at $40.04.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Avista from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th.

Avista Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $3.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.46. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $38.16 and a 200-day simple moving average of $37.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a current ratio of 0.75.

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 return on equity of 7.83% and a net margin of 10.24%. The firm had revenue of $517.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $487.48 million. Equities research analysts expect that Avista Co. will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Avista Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 26th were issued a $0.49 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 26th. This represents a $1.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.80%. This is a positive change from Avista’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. Avista’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 86.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Avista

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

Institutional Trading of Avista

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Avista by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,260,857 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $375,855,000 after buying an additional 327,535 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in shares of Avista by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 2,967,172 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $108,687,000 after acquiring an additional 53,222 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Avista by 1.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,828,230 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $70,857,000 after acquiring an additional 27,328 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Avista by 27.2% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,283,532 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $47,016,000 after purchasing an additional 274,270 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Avista by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,253,280 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $45,908,000 after purchasing an additional 24,981 shares during the period. 85.24% of the stock is currently 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.