Insider Selling: Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) VP Sells 2,298 Shares of Stock

Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) VP Scott J. Kinney sold 2,298 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.75, for a total transaction of $89,047.50. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 12,539 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $485,886.25. This represents a 15.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Avista Stock Performance

Avista stock traded down $0.60 on Thursday, reaching $38.90. 303,911 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 531,883. The stock has a market cap of $3.12 billion, a PE ratio of 15.50, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.49. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $37.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $37.64. Avista Co. has a twelve month low of $33.00 and a twelve month high of $40.21. 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 earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.86 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $517.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $487.48 million. Avista had a net margin of 10.24% and a return on equity of 7.83%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Avista Co. will post 2.3 EPS for the current year.

Avista Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 26th will be given a dividend of $0.49 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 26th. This represents a $1.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.04%. This is a positive change from Avista’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. Avista’s payout ratio is 86.34%.

Institutional Trading of Avista

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AVA. Algert Global LLC raised its position in shares of Avista by 202.2% during the third quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 57,617 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,233,000 after buying an additional 38,550 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Avista by 9.0% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 420,527 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $16,295,000 after acquiring an additional 34,829 shares during the period. A. D. Beadell Investment Counsel Inc. acquired a new position in Avista in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,340,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Avista by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,828,230 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $70,857,000 after acquiring an additional 27,328 shares during the period. Finally, CWA Asset Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Avista during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,672,000. 85.24% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Avista Company Profile

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.