Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.48

Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, November 15th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 26th will be paid a dividend of 0.475 per share by the utilities provider on Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.04%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 26th.

Avista has increased its dividend by an average of 4.3% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 22 years. Avista has a payout ratio of 74.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Avista to earn $2.52 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.90 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 75.4%.

Avista Price Performance

AVA stock traded up $0.54 during trading on Friday, hitting $37.73. 280,306 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 517,033. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $37.97 and a 200 day simple moving average of $37.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a current ratio of 0.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.82, a P/E/G ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.47. Avista has a 52 week low of $31.91 and a 52 week high of $39.99.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.23 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.13 by $0.10. Avista had a return on equity of 7.83% and a net margin of 10.24%. The firm had revenue of $383.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $389.29 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.19 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Avista will post 2.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Bank of America assumed coverage on Avista in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $37.00 price target on the stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP David J. Meyer sold 2,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.32, for a total transaction of $91,968.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 5,436 shares in the company, valued at approximately $208,307.52. This trade represents a 30.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.96% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.