Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC bought a new stake in shares of Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA - Free Report) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 150,653 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $5,838,000. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC owned approximately 0.19% of Avista at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. bought a new stake in shares of Avista in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new position in Avista during the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. Quest Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Avista in the 2nd quarter worth about $40,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC bought a new stake in Avista in the first quarter worth about $73,000. Finally, KBC Group NV boosted its position in shares of Avista by 46.9% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,098 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $81,000 after buying an additional 670 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 85.24% of the company's stock.
Avista stock opened at $39.05 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.47. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $37.95 and a two-hundred day moving average of $37.31. Avista Co. has a 1 year low of $31.91 and a 1 year high of $39.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.48.
Avista (NYSE:AVA - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.23 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.13 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $383.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $389.29 million. Avista had a return on equity of 7.83% and a net margin of 10.24%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.19 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Avista Co. will post 2.36 earnings per share for the current year.
The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 26th will be paid a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 26th. Avista's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 75.70%.
In other news, VP David J. Meyer sold 2,400 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was 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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $208,307.52. This represents a 30.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.96% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
Separately, Bank of America started coverage on Avista in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They set an "underperform" rating and a $37.00 price target for the company.
View Our Latest Analysis on 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.
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