Avista Corporation $AVA Shares Acquired by HighTower Advisors LLC

HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Avista Corporation (NYSE:AVA) by 18.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,891 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,619 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Avista were worth $958,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in AVA. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Avista during the 4th quarter valued at $1,209,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Avista during the 4th quarter valued at $1,007,000. MetLife Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Avista by 5.8% during the 4th quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 47,735 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,749,000 after acquiring an additional 2,619 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its holdings in shares of Avista by 273.6% during the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 10,950 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $401,000 after acquiring an additional 8,019 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Avista by 16.9% during the 4th quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 90,527 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,316,000 after acquiring an additional 13,109 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.24% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Avista news, VP Scott J. Kinney sold 1,024 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.82, for a total value of $38,727.68. Following the transaction, the vice president owned 11,515 shares in the company, valued at $435,497.30. The trade was a 8.17% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.96% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Avista Stock Performance

NYSE:AVA opened at $37.04 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.69, a PEG ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 0.40. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $37.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.78. Avista Corporation has a twelve month low of $34.80 and a twelve month high of $43.09.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.17 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by ($0.11). Avista had a return on equity of 6.86% and a net margin of 9.13%.The firm had revenue of $400.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $416.06 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.29 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Avista Corporation will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Avista Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 19th will be issued a $0.49 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 19th. This represents a $1.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.3%. Avista’s payout ratio is currently 88.29%.

Avista 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.