Moody Aldrich Partners LLC Sells 5,828 Shares of Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA)

Moody Aldrich Partners LLC trimmed its position in shares of Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) by 4.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 116,098 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 5,828 shares during the quarter. Moody Aldrich Partners LLC’s holdings in Avista were worth $4,253,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Hennessy Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Avista by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 25,772 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $944,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Avista by 7.3% during the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,330 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $245,000 after purchasing an additional 428 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Avista by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 19,483 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $714,000 after purchasing an additional 490 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its holdings in Avista by 43.0% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,723 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $63,000 after acquiring an additional 518 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV raised its holdings in Avista by 46.9% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,098 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $81,000 after acquiring an additional 670 shares during the last quarter. 85.24% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Avista from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday.

Avista Stock Performance

AVA stock opened at $36.49 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $2.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.49. Avista Co. has a 1 year low of $31.91 and a 1 year high of $39.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.48. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $36.95 and its 200-day moving average price is $37.71.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.13 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $383.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $389.29 million. Avista had a return on equity of 7.83% and a net margin of 10.24%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.19 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Avista Co. will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Avista Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 26th were paid a $0.475 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 26th. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.21%. Avista’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 75.70%.

Avista 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.