Teacher Retirement System of Texas Increases Stake in Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas raised its holdings in shares of Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) by 29.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 55,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 12,649 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas owned approximately 0.07% of Avista worth $2,015,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Avista by 70.6% during the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 22,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $882,000 after purchasing an additional 9,418 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Avista by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,228,299 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $47,597,000 after buying an additional 26,706 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. grew its stake in shares of Avista by 30.7% during the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 176,459 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,838,000 after acquiring an additional 41,431 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO. increased its holdings in Avista by 12.2% in the 3rd quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 9,557 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $370,000 after acquiring an additional 1,041 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC raised its stake in Avista by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 17,430 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $675,000 after acquiring an additional 707 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 85.24% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Avista Price Performance

Shares of Avista stock opened at $40.04 on Friday. 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 Co. has a 52 week low of $33.00 and a 52 week high of $40.23. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $38.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $37.75. The company has a market capitalization of $3.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.95, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.46.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by ($0.02). Avista had a return on equity of 7.83% and a net margin of 10.24%. The business had revenue of $517.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $487.48 million. As a group, analysts expect that Avista Co. will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Avista Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 26th were issued a $0.49 dividend. This is an increase from Avista’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. This represents a $1.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.90%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 26th. Avista’s payout ratio is currently 86.34%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Scott J. Kinney sold 2,298 shares of Avista stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.75, for a total value of $89,047.50. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 12,539 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $485,886.25. The trade was a 15.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.96% of the company’s stock.

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.