New York State Common Retirement Fund Purchases 605 Shares of Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA)

New York State Common Retirement Fund grew its position in Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) by 1.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 42,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 605 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned about 0.06% of Avista worth $1,524,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its stake in shares of Avista by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 36,063 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,289,000 after acquiring an additional 283 shares in the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of Avista by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 21,572 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $698,000 after buying an additional 426 shares during the period. Strs Ohio grew its position in shares of Avista by 33.3% during the 4th quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 2,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $71,000 after buying an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Avista by 11.9% during the third quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 6,390 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $207,000 after buying an additional 681 shares during the period. Finally, IFM Investors Pty Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Avista by 8.5% in the third quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 10,051 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $325,000 after acquiring an additional 791 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.24% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on AVA. Guggenheim raised shares of Avista from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $34.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. StockNews.com raised shares of Avista from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Mizuho raised Avista from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the company from $32.00 to $36.00 in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.00.

Avista Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE:AVA opened at $38.23 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.86 and a beta of 0.48. Avista Co. has a 1 year low of $30.53 and a 1 year high of $44.76. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $34.82 and its 200-day moving average price is $34.50.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by ($0.09). The company had revenue of $594.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $469.34 million. Avista had a return on equity of 7.65% and a net margin of 9.96%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 29.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.73 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Avista Co. will post 2.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Avista Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 23rd will be given a $0.475 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 22nd. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.97%. Avista’s dividend payout ratio is presently 78.84%.

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.