Avista Co. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.48 (NYSE:AVA)

Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 2nd, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 23rd will be given a dividend of 0.475 per share by the utilities provider on Friday, June 14th. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 22nd.

Avista has increased its dividend payment by an average of 4.3% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 22 years. Avista has a dividend payout ratio of 73.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings.

Avista Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:AVA traded up $0.15 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $36.79. 478,035 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 572,557. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.85. Avista has a one year low of $30.53 and a one year high of $44.76. The company has a market cap of $2.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.50 and a beta of 0.48. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $34.40 and a 200 day moving average of $34.32.

Avista (NYSE:AVA - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.00 by ($0.09). The business had revenue of $594.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $469.34 million. Avista had a return on equity of 7.07% and a net margin of 9.77%. Avista's quarterly revenue was up 29.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.73 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Avista will post 2.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on AVA. Guggenheim upgraded shares of Avista from a "sell" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $34.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. StockNews.com cut Avista from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Thursday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have issued a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Avista presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $33.50.

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.