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

Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, November 14th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 4.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 26th.

Avista has raised its dividend payment by an average of 4.3% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 22 consecutive years. Avista has a payout ratio of 74.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE AVA opened at $39.13 on Monday. Avista has a fifty-two week low of $31.91 and a fifty-two week high of $39.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.59, a P/E/G ratio of 4.28 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.48. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $37.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $37.33.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $383.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $389.29 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.19 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Avista will post 2.36 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Avista news, VP David J. Meyer sold 2,400 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.32, for a total value of $91,968.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 5,436 shares in the company, valued at $208,307.52. This represents a 30.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.96% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

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.