Yousif Capital Management LLC Increases Position in Avista Corporation $AVA

Yousif Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Avista Corporation (NYSE:AVA) by 2.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 29,948 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 755 shares during the period. Yousif Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Avista were worth $1,137,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. SPC Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Avista by 4.4% in the 2nd quarter. SPC Financial Inc. now owns 11,900 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $452,000 after buying an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC boosted its stake in shares of Avista by 92.6% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 11,751 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $446,000 after buying an additional 5,650 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Avista by 7.6% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 13,828 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $525,000 after buying an additional 982 shares during the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc boosted its stake in shares of Avista by 23.2% in the 2nd quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 3,523 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $134,000 after buying an additional 664 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lifted its stake in Avista by 2.3% in the second quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 23,676 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $899,000 after purchasing an additional 537 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.24% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Avista in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, Avista presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Avista news, SVP Bryan Alden Cox bought 3,671 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 16th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $35.55 per share, with a total value of $130,504.05. Following the acquisition, the senior vice president directly owned 9,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $355,108.95. The trade was a 58.10% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP David J. Meyer sold 1,367 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.72, for a total transaction of $50,196.24. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 8,394 shares in the company, valued at $308,227.68. The trade was a 14.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.94% of the company’s stock.

Avista Price Performance

Avista stock opened at $38.89 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $37.00 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.14. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. Avista Corporation has a 12 month low of $34.80 and a 12 month high of $43.09. The company has a market cap of $3.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.52, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.39.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by ($0.11). Avista had a net margin of 9.13% and a return on equity of 6.86%. The business had revenue of $400.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $416.06 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.29 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Avista Corporation will post 2.3 EPS for the current year.

Avista Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 19th were issued a dividend of $0.49 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 19th. This represents a $1.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.0%. Avista’s payout ratio is presently 88.29%.

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.