Avista (NYSE:AVA) Releases FY 2024 Earnings Guidance

Avista (NYSE:AVA) updated its FY 2024 earnings guidance on Wednesday. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of 2.360-2.560 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of 2.390. The company issued revenue guidance of -. Avista also updated its FY24 guidance to $2.36-2.56 EPS.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on AVA. StockNews.com raised Avista from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note on Saturday, February 24th. Guggenheim raised Avista from a sell rating to a neutral rating and set a $34.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $33.50.

Avista Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AVA opened at $38.22 on Wednesday. Avista has a fifty-two week low of $30.53 and a fifty-two week high of $44.76. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $34.30 and a 200-day moving average of $34.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.85. The stock has a market cap of $2.99 billion, a PE ratio of 16.13 and a beta of 0.50.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The utilities provider reported $1.08 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.14 by ($0.06). Avista had a return on equity of 7.07% and a net margin of 9.77%. The business had revenue of $504.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $545.78 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.05 earnings per share. Avista’s quarterly revenue was up 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Avista will post 2.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Avista Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Investors of record on Friday, February 23rd were given a dividend of $0.475 per share. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.97%. This is a boost from Avista’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.46. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 22nd. Avista’s payout ratio is presently 85.20%.

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.