EP Wealth Advisors LLC Has $230,000 Stock Position in Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA)

EP Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) by 10.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 6,271 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 575 shares during the period. EP Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Avista were worth $230,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Headlands Technologies LLC lifted its stake in shares of Avista by 2,474.1% in the 4th quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 695 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 668 shares during the period. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Avista by 117.8% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 858 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 464 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP raised its stake in Avista by 296.7% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 956 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 715 shares during the period. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Avista by 45.3% during the 4th quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 1,462 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $54,000 after buying an additional 456 shares during the period. Finally, Eastern Bank raised its stake in Avista by 309.3% during the 4th quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 1,842 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $67,000 after buying an additional 1,392 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Avista Stock Performance

Shares of Avista stock opened at $37.92 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.05 billion, a PE ratio of 15.11, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.42. Avista Co. has a 12 month low of $33.45 and a 12 month high of $43.09. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $40.61 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.44.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.05 by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $603.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $636.30 million. Avista had a return on equity of 7.83% and a net margin of 10.24%. Avista’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.91 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Avista Co. will post 2.3 EPS for the current year.

Avista Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.49 per share. This represents a $1.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 13th. Avista’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 83.76%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Avista news, VP Scott J. Kinney sold 2,298 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.75, for a total transaction of $89,047.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 12,539 shares in the company, valued at approximately $485,886.25. This represents a 15.49% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.96% of the company’s stock.

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.