Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) Short Interest Down 5.8% in January

Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) saw a significant drop in short interest in January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,770,000 shares, a drop of 5.8% from the January 15th total of 2,940,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 514,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.4 days.

Avista Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE:AVA opened at $37.08 on Wednesday. Avista has a 1 year low of $32.70 and a 1 year high of $39.99. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $36.52 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $37.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.94 billion, a PE ratio of 14.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.49. 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 Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 26th will be given a dividend of $0.49 per share. This represents a $1.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 26th. This is a positive change from Avista’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. Avista’s payout ratio is 75.70%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of AVA. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Avista by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,260,857 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $375,855,000 after acquiring an additional 327,535 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of Avista by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 2,967,172 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $108,687,000 after acquiring an additional 53,222 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Avista by 1.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,828,230 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $70,857,000 after acquiring an additional 27,328 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Avista by 27.2% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,283,532 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $47,016,000 after acquiring an additional 274,270 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Avista by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,253,280 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $45,908,000 after acquiring an additional 24,981 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.24% 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.