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

Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, November 14th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders 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 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 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. 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 Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of Avista stock opened at $39.13 on Monday. Avista has a 12-month low of $31.91 and a 12-month high of $39.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.28 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $37.99 and a 200 day simple moving average of $37.33. The company has a quick ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.23 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.13 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $383.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $389.29 million. Avista had a net margin of 10.24% and a return on equity of 7.83%. The company’s revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.19 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Avista will post 2.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Bank of America started coverage on Avista in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $37.00 price objective on the stock.

Insider Transactions at Avista

In related news, VP David J. Meyer sold 2,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.32, for a total value of $91,968.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now 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 SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.96% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.