Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) Short Interest Up 5.8% in December

Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) saw a significant growth in short interest during the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,730,000 shares, a growth of 5.8% from the November 30th total of 2,580,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 483,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.7 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Moors & Cabot Inc. raised its position in shares of Avista by 4.0% during the 2nd quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 10,031 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $347,000 after purchasing an additional 390 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its holdings in Avista by 7.3% during the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,330 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $245,000 after acquiring an additional 428 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System lifted its position in shares of Avista by 2.9% in the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 21,888 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $758,000 after acquiring an additional 626 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its stake in shares of Avista by 46.9% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,098 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $81,000 after acquiring an additional 670 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 707 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 85.24% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AVA has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Avista in a research report on Monday, December 9th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $40.00 target price for the company. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Avista in a report on Thursday, September 12th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $37.00 price objective for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have assigned a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Avista presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $36.75.

Avista Trading Down 0.8 %

Avista stock opened at $36.35 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. The company has a market cap of $2.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.48, a P/E/G ratio of 4.13 and a beta of 0.48. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $37.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $37.40. Avista has a 52-week low of $31.91 and a 52-week high of $39.99.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.23 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.13 by $0.10. Avista had a net margin of 10.24% and a return on equity of 7.83%. The business had revenue of $383.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $389.29 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.19 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Avista will post 2.3 EPS for the current year.

Avista Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 26th were issued a dividend of $0.475 per share. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.23%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 26th. Avista’s dividend payout ratio is presently 75.70%.

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.