740,886 Shares in Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) Bought by Norges Bank

Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 740,886 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $27,139,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AVA. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of Avista by 44.0% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 480,744 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $17,610,000 after acquiring an additional 147,007 shares in the last quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd raised its position in shares of Avista by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd now owns 29,032 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,063,000 after purchasing an additional 1,571 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Avista by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 1,019,177 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $37,332,000 after buying an additional 94,460 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Avista by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,260,857 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $375,855,000 after buying an additional 327,535 shares during the period. Finally, LPL Financial LLC grew its stake in Avista by 28.2% in the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 35,291 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,293,000 after buying an additional 7,753 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Avista from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Scott J. Kinney sold 2,298 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.75, for a total value of $89,047.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 12,539 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $485,886.25. This represents a 15.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.96% of the company’s stock.

Avista Stock Down 4.0 %

AVA opened at $40.68 on Monday. Avista Co. has a 1-year low of $33.00 and a 1-year high of $43.09. The business has a 50 day moving average of $38.77 and a 200-day moving average of $37.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.21, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by ($0.02). Avista had a net margin of 10.24% and a return on equity of 7.83%. The company had revenue of $517.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $487.48 million. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Avista Co. will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Avista Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 26th were issued a $0.49 dividend. This represents a $1.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 26th. This is a positive change from Avista’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. Avista’s payout ratio is 86.34%.

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.