Everence Capital Management Inc. Sells 3,470 Shares of Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA)

Everence Capital Management Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) by 21.7% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 12,550 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 3,470 shares during the period. Everence Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Avista were worth $449,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Avista by 0.6% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 12,115,169 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $475,763,000 after buying an additional 66,634 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Avista by 1.7% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,429,393 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $305,229,000 after buying an additional 159,668 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in Avista by 624.7% during the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,945,495 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $130,603,000 after buying an additional 2,539,057 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its holdings in Avista by 3.7% during the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,886,320 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $80,074,000 after buying an additional 68,094 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nuance Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of Avista by 20.0% in the third quarter. Nuance Investments LLC now owns 1,822,276 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $58,987,000 after purchasing an additional 303,581 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AVA has been the subject of several analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Avista from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 24th. Guggenheim upgraded shares of Avista from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $34.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, January 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $33.50.

Avista Price Performance

AVA opened at $33.73 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $2.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.13 and a beta of 0.50. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $33.88 and a 200 day moving average of $34.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.85. Avista Co. has a fifty-two week low of $30.53 and a fifty-two week high of $44.83.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The utilities provider reported $1.08 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.14 by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $504.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $545.78 million. Avista had a net margin of 9.77% and a return on equity of 7.07%. Avista’s quarterly revenue was up 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.05 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Avista Co. will post 2.42 EPS for the current year.

Avista Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Investors of record on Friday, February 23rd were given a dividend of $0.475 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 22nd. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.63%. This is a positive change from Avista’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.46. Avista’s dividend payout ratio is presently 85.20%.

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.