Avista (AVA) Competitors

Avista (NYSE:AVA) and Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) are both mid-cap utilities companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, dividends, valuation, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership and community ranking.

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in AVA or BKH?

85.2% of Avista shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.7% of Black Hills shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of Avista shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Black Hills shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has higher earnings & valuation, AVA or BKH?

Black Hills has higher revenue and earnings than Avista. Black Hills is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Avista, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Avista	$1.94B	1.72	$171.18M	$2.27	18.28
Black Hills	$2.13B	2.06	$273.10M	$3.92	15.52

Do analysts prefer AVA or BKH?

Avista currently has a consensus target price of $37.33, suggesting a potential downside of 10.02%. Black Hills has a consensus target price of $62.33, suggesting a potential upside of 2.45%. Given Black Hills' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Black Hills is more favorable than Avista.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Avista	1 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.67
Black Hills	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00

Which has more risk & volatility, AVA or BKH?

Avista has a beta of 0.38, indicating that its share price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Black Hills has a beta of 0.64, indicating that its share price is 36% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media favor AVA or BKH?

In the previous week, Black Hills had 10 more articles in the media than Avista. MarketBeat recorded 15 mentions for Black Hills and 5 mentions for Avista. Avista's average media sentiment score of 1.63 beat Black Hills' score of 1.05 indicating that Avista is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Avista	5 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive
Black Hills	10 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is AVA or BKH more profitable?

Black Hills has a net margin of 12.84% compared to Avista's net margin of 10.24%. Avista's return on equity of 7.83% beat Black Hills' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Avista	10.24%	7.83%	2.56%
Black Hills	12.84%	7.82%	2.76%

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in AVA or BKH?

Black Hills received 137 more outperform votes than Avista when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 58.95% of users gave Black Hills an outperform vote while only 47.47% of users gave Avista an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Avista	Outperform Votes 235 47.47%	Underperform Votes 260 52.53%
Black Hills	Outperform Votes 372 58.95%	Underperform Votes 259 41.05%

Is AVA or BKH a better dividend stock?

Avista pays an annual dividend of $1.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.7%. Black Hills pays an annual dividend of $2.70 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.4%. Avista pays out 86.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Black Hills pays out 68.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Avista has raised its dividend for 23 consecutive years and Black Hills has raised its dividend for 55 consecutive years.

Summary

Black Hills beats Avista on 15 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.