Insider Selling: Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) VP Sells 1,024 Shares of Stock

Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) VP Scott J. Kinney sold 1,024 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.82, for a total value of $38,727.68. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 11,515 shares in the company, valued at $435,497.30. The trade was a 8.17% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Avista Price Performance

AVA opened at $37.28 on Friday. Avista Co. has a 12-month low of $33.45 and a 12-month high of $43.09. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $39.68 and its 200-day simple moving average is $38.49. The company has a market capitalization of $3.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.85, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.41.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.05 by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $603.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $636.30 million. Avista had a return on equity of 7.83% and a net margin of 10.24%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.91 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Avista Co. will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Avista Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th were paid a $0.49 dividend. This represents a $1.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 13th. Avista’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 83.76%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Avista

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AVA. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System raised its stake in shares of Avista by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 38,300 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,403,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in shares of Avista by 9.0% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 23,446 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $859,000 after purchasing an additional 1,928 shares during the last quarter. IMS Capital Management raised its stake in shares of Avista by 33.3% in the fourth quarter. IMS Capital Management now owns 13,371 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $490,000 after purchasing an additional 3,340 shares during the last quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. raised its stake in shares of Avista by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 85,669 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,138,000 after purchasing an additional 6,199 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. raised its stake in shares of Avista by 13.5% in the fourth quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 8,141 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $298,000 after purchasing an additional 967 shares during the last quarter. 85.24% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.