Avista (NYSE:AVA) Updates FY24 Earnings Guidance

Avista (NYSE:AVA) updated its FY24 earnings guidance on Wednesday. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $2.36-2.56 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $2.41. Avista also updated its FY 2024 guidance to 2.360-2.560 EPS.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on AVA shares. Mizuho upgraded Avista from an underperform rating to a neutral rating and upped their price objective for the company from $32.00 to $36.00 in a research note on Friday. Guggenheim upgraded Avista from a sell rating to a neutral rating and set a $34.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Avista from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $35.00.

Avista Price Performance

NYSE:AVA traded up $0.51 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $37.30. The company had a trading volume of 514,268 shares, compared to its average volume of 466,379. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $34.47 and its 200-day moving average price is $34.35. Avista has a 52-week low of $30.53 and a 52-week high of $44.76. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. The company has a market capitalization of $2.92 billion, a PE ratio of 15.48 and a beta of 0.48.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.00 by ($0.09). Avista had a net margin of 9.96% and a return on equity of 7.65%. The business had revenue of $594.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $469.34 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.73 EPS. Avista’s revenue for the quarter was up 29.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Avista will post 2.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Avista Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 23rd will be issued a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.09%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 22nd. Avista’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 78.84%.

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.