San Luis Wealth Advisors LLC Takes $685,000 Position in Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA)

San Luis Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 18,711 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $685,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Moors & Cabot Inc. increased its position in shares of Avista by 4.0% during the 2nd quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 10,031 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $347,000 after purchasing an additional 390 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its position in Avista by 7.3% during the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,330 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $245,000 after acquiring an additional 428 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its stake in shares of Avista by 43.0% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,723 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $63,000 after acquiring an additional 518 shares during the period. KBC Group NV lifted its holdings in shares of Avista by 46.9% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,098 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $81,000 after acquiring an additional 670 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Avista by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 17,430 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $675,000 after purchasing an additional 707 shares during the period. 85.24% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Avista in a research report on Monday, December 9th. They issued a "hold" rating and a $40.00 price objective on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have issued a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Avista presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $36.75.

Avista Trading Up 0.3 %

AVA stock traded up $0.09 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $36.03. The company's stock had a trading volume of 368,410 shares, compared to its average volume of 479,534. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.35, a PEG ratio of 4.13 and a beta of 0.49. Avista Co. has a 1 year low of $31.91 and a 1 year high of $39.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a current ratio of 0.75. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $37.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $37.55.

Avista (NYSE:AVA - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly 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. The company had revenue of $383.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $389.29 million. Avista had a net margin of 10.24% and a return on equity of 7.83%. The firm's revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.19 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Avista Co. will post 2.3 EPS for the current year.

Avista Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 26th were issued a $0.475 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 26th. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.27%. Avista's payout ratio is currently 75.70%.

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.