NFJ Investment Group LLC Buys New Holdings in Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA)

NFJ Investment Group LLC acquired a new stake in Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA - Free Report) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 128,068 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $4,963,000. NFJ Investment Group LLC owned 0.16% of Avista as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AVA. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Avista by 11.8% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 55,340 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,939,000 after acquiring an additional 5,849 shares during the period. Cetera Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Avista in the first quarter valued at approximately $349,000. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Avista by 109.6% in the second quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 34,015 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,177,000 after acquiring an additional 17,784 shares during the period. CWM LLC grew its stake in Avista by 32.1% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 7,115 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $246,000 after acquiring an additional 1,730 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in Avista by 383.0% in the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 27,941 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $967,000 after acquiring an additional 22,156 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.24% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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 on the stock.

Avista Stock Performance

Shares of AVA traded down $0.47 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $37.52. The stock had a trading volume of 184,550 shares, compared to its average volume of 514,464. The firm has a market cap of $2.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.15, a PEG ratio of 4.17 and a beta of 0.48. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $37.98 and a 200-day moving average price of $37.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.48. Avista Co. has a 52 week low of $31.91 and a 52 week high of $39.99.

Avista (NYSE:AVA - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.23 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 analysts' expectations of $389.29 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.19 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Avista Co. will post 2.36 EPS for the current year.

Avista Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 26th will be given a dividend of $0.475 per share. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.06%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 26th. Avista's payout ratio is 75.70%.

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.