Avista (NYSE:AVA) Announces Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.09 EPS

Avista (NYSE:AVA) announced its earnings results on Wednesday. The utilities provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by ($0.09), Briefing.com reports. Avista had a net margin of 9.96% and a return on equity of 7.65%. The company had revenue of $594.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $469.34 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.73 EPS. Avista’s quarterly revenue was up 29.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Avista updated its FY24 guidance to $2.36-2.56 EPS and its FY 2024 guidance to 2.360-2.560 EPS.

Avista Trading Up 1.4 %

AVA stock traded up $0.51 on Friday, hitting $37.30. 514,268 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 466,379. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.65. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.48 and a beta of 0.48. Avista has a twelve month low of $30.53 and a twelve month high of $44.76. The business’s fifty day moving average is $34.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $34.35.

Avista Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 23rd will be given a $0.475 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 22nd. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.09%. Avista’s dividend payout ratio is presently 78.84%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. StockNews.com cut Avista from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday. Guggenheim raised shares of Avista from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $34.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, Mizuho upgraded shares of Avista from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $32.00 to $36.00 in a research report on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $35.00.

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.