Avista (NYSE:AVA) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.09 EPS

Avista (NYSE:AVA) announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The utilities provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by ($0.09), Briefing.com reports. The firm had revenue of $594.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $469.34 million. Avista had a return on equity of 7.07% and a net margin of 9.77%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 29.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.73 earnings per share. Avista updated its FY24 guidance to $2.36-2.56 EPS and its FY 2024 guidance to 2.360-2.560 EPS.

Avista Price Performance

Shares of AVA traded down $0.19 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $36.45. The company had a trading volume of 90,076 shares, compared to its average volume of 567,904. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $34.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $34.31. Avista has a 1-year low of $30.53 and a 1-year high of $44.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.85. The company has a market capitalization of $2.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.59 and a beta of 0.48.

Avista Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were paid a $0.475 dividend. This is an increase from Avista’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.46. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 22nd. Avista’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 85.20%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AVA has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Guggenheim upgraded shares of Avista from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $34.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Avista from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Avista has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $33.50.

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.