Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) Plans Dividend Increase – $0.49 Per Share

Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 12th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 26th will be paid a dividend of 0.49 per share by the utilities provider on Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.30%. This is a positive change from Avista’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48.

Avista has increased its dividend by an average of 4.0% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 22 consecutive years. Avista has a dividend payout ratio of 69.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Avista to earn $2.50 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 76.0%.

Avista Price Performance

AVA stock opened at $36.97 on Thursday. 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 business has a 50-day simple moving average of $36.56 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $37.64. The company has a market capitalization of $2.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.49. Avista has a 52-week low of $31.91 and a 52-week high of $39.99.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.