Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. Purchases 19,182 Shares of Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA)

Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) by 56.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 53,197 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 19,182 shares during the quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. owned 0.07% of Avista worth $2,061,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL increased its position in shares of Avista by 44.2% during the first quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 269,120 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,425,000 after acquiring an additional 82,500 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in shares of Avista by 140.8% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 92,319 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,233,000 after purchasing an additional 53,983 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Avista by 57.2% in the first quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 188,124 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,588,000 after acquiring an additional 68,441 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its stake in Avista by 383.0% in the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 27,941 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $967,000 after acquiring an additional 22,156 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Avista during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $5,638,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.24% of the company’s stock.

Avista Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of Avista stock opened at $36.40 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.74, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 0.47. Avista Co. has a 52-week low of $31.91 and a 52-week high of $39.99. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $38.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $37.17.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.29 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22 by $0.07. Avista had a net margin of 10.12% and a return on equity of 7.77%. The company had revenue of $390.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $386.69 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.23 EPS. Avista’s revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Avista Co. will post 2.41 EPS for the current year.

Avista Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.475 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 22nd. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.22%. Avista’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 76.92%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Bank of America initiated 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.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP David J. Meyer sold 2,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.32, for a total transaction of $91,968.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 5,436 shares in the company, valued at $208,307.52. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.96% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.