Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) Raises Dividend to $0.49 Per Share

Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 12th,RTT News reports. Shareholders 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 yield of 5.30%. This is a positive change from Avista’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48.

Avista has raised its dividend payment by an average of 4.0% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 22 years. Avista has a payout ratio of 69.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research 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 Trading Down 0.7 %

NYSE AVA opened at $36.97 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.73, a PEG ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.49. The business’s fifty day moving average is $36.56 and its 200-day moving average is $37.64. 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 has a one year low of $31.91 and a one year high of $39.99.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

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.