Avista Co. (AVA) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.48 on December 13th

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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.86%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 26th.

Avista has raised its dividend by an average of 4.3% annually 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. Equities 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 Stock Performance

Shares of AVA opened at $39.13 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.59, a PEG ratio of 4.28 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a current ratio of 0.75. Avista has a 1 year low of $31.91 and a 1 year high of $39.99. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.23 EPS 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 business had revenue of $383.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $389.29 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.19 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side 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 Avista 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $208,307.52. The trade was a 30.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.96% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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