Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. Raises Position in Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA)

Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) by 56.4% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 53,197 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 19,182 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Avista were worth $2,061,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Avista by 16.3% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 8,706 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $337,000 after acquiring an additional 1,218 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE boosted its stake in shares of Avista by 75.2% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 14,775 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $573,000 after purchasing an additional 6,344 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Avista by 7.3% in the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,330 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $245,000 after purchasing an additional 428 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in shares of Avista by 46.0% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 374,207 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $14,501,000 after buying an additional 117,814 shares during the period. Finally, Moody Aldrich Partners LLC bought a new stake in Avista during the 3rd quarter valued at $4,725,000. 85.24% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP David J. Meyer sold 2,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.32, for a total value of $91,968.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 5,436 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $208,307.52. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.96% of the company’s stock.

Avista Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AVA opened at $36.40 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.60. Avista Co. has a 1 year low of $31.91 and a 1 year high of $39.99. The company’s 50-day moving average is $38.15 and its 200 day moving average is $37.17. 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 (NYSE:AVA) last released its 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. The company had revenue of $390.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $386.69 million. Avista had a return on equity of 7.77% and a net margin of 10.12%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.23 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Avista Co. will post 2.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Avista Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 22nd were paid a $0.475 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 22nd. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.22%. Avista’s dividend payout ratio is presently 76.92%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Avista in a report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $37.00 price target on the stock.

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.