Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC Cuts Position in Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA)

Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) by 25.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 922,849 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 312,840 shares during the period. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Avista were worth $35,760,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Avista by 109.6% during the 2nd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 34,015 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,177,000 after buying an additional 17,784 shares during the period. Algert Global LLC raised its stake in shares of Avista by 202.2% during the third quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 57,617 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,233,000 after purchasing an additional 38,550 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Avista by 383.0% during the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 27,941 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $967,000 after purchasing an additional 22,156 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Avista by 9.0% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 420,527 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $16,295,000 after acquiring an additional 34,829 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in Avista in the 2nd quarter valued at $5,638,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.24% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Bank of America assumed coverage on Avista in a report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $37.00 target price on the stock.

Avista Price Performance

Shares of Avista stock opened at $38.06 on Tuesday. Avista Co. has a 1-year low of $31.91 and a 1-year high of $39.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.16, a PEG ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $37.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $37.34.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.23 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.13 by $0.10. Avista had a return on equity of 7.83% and a net margin of 10.24%. The company had revenue of $383.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $389.29 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.19 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Avista Co. will post 2.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Avista Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 26th will be paid a dividend of $0.475 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 26th. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.99%. Avista’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.