ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) Now Covered by Analysts at StockNews.com

StockNews.com started coverage on shares of ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) in a report released on Monday morning. The brokerage issued a hold rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Separately, Sidoti raised ALLETE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $62.00.

ALLETE Stock Performance

NYSE:ALE opened at $64.43 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $3.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.49 and a beta of 0.80. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $63.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $62.80. ALLETE has a fifty-two week low of $52.14 and a fifty-two week high of $65.86. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.87 by ($0.30). The firm had revenue of $354.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $547.24 million. ALLETE had a return on equity of 7.07% and a net margin of 14.36%. The business’s revenue was down 33.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share.

ALLETE Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were given a $0.7005 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.35%. ALLETE’s payout ratio is 67.79%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ALE. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 86,053 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,263,000 after purchasing an additional 3,015 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of ALLETE by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,579,504 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $402,402,000 after buying an additional 176,709 shares during the period. Quadrature Capital Ltd raised its position in shares of ALLETE by 148.2% during the 4th quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 17,041 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,043,000 after buying an additional 10,175 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC lifted its stake in shares of ALLETE by 22.9% in the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,407 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $203,000 after acquiring an additional 634 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of ALLETE by 43.7% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,869 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $111,000 after acquiring an additional 568 shares during the period. 76.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About ALLETE

ALLETE, Inc operates as an energy company. The company operates through Regulated Operations, ALLETE Clean Energy, and Corporate and Other segments. It generates electricity from coal-fired, biomass co-fired / natural gas, hydroelectric, wind, and solar. In addition, the company provides regulated utility electric services in northwestern Wisconsin to approximately 15,000 electric customers, 13,000 natural gas customers, and 10,000 water customers, as well as regulated utility electric services in northeastern Minnesota to approximately 150,000 retail customers and 14 non-affiliated municipal customers.