Short Interest in Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) Rises By 8.1%

Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) saw a large increase in short interest in January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,950,000 shares, an increase of 8.1% from the December 31st total of 2,730,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 498,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.9 days.

Institutional Trading of Avista

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Ieq Capital LLC boosted its stake in Avista by 36.0% in the fourth quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 7,747 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $284,000 after acquiring an additional 2,050 shares in the last quarter. Convergence Investment Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Avista by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Convergence Investment Partners LLC now owns 45,459 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,665,000 after buying an additional 1,878 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp raised its position in Avista by 11.0% during the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 41,675 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,527,000 after acquiring an additional 4,130 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in shares of Avista by 4.7% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 7,814 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $286,000 after purchasing an additional 351 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Avista by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 439,680 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $16,105,000 after acquiring an additional 19,153 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 85.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Avista from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th.

Avista Stock Performance

Avista stock opened at $36.76 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.49. The company’s 50-day moving average is $36.80 and its 200 day moving average is $37.71. Avista 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 current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.48.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.23 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.13 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $383.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $389.29 million. Avista had a net margin of 10.24% and a return on equity of 7.83%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.19 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Avista will post 2.3 EPS for the current year.

Avista Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 26th were given 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 5.17%. Avista’s payout ratio is presently 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.