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

Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, November 15th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors 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 5.04%. The ex-dividend date 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 raised 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 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 Avista stock traded up $0.54 on Friday, reaching $37.73. The stock had a trading volume of 280,306 shares, compared to its average volume of 517,033. 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 fifty-two week low of $31.91 and a fifty-two week high of $39.99. The business's 50-day moving average price is $37.97 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $37.25. The stock has a market cap of $2.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.47.

Avista (NYSE:AVA - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.13 by $0.10. Avista had a net margin of 10.24% and a return on equity of 7.83%. The company had revenue of $383.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $389.29 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.19 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Avista will post 2.36 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Bank of America started coverage on Avista in a report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued an "underperform" rating and a $37.00 price objective for the company.

Insider Transactions at Avista

In other news, VP David J. Meyer sold 2,400 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 5,436 shares in the company, valued at $208,307.52. The trade was a 30.63 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.96% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Avista Company 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.

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