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

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

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

ALLETE Price Performance

NYSE ALE opened at $64.13 on Tuesday. ALLETE has a 52 week low of $52.14 and a 52 week high of $65.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.42 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $63.88 and a 200-day moving average price of $62.91.

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

ALLETE Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, August 15th were paid a $0.7005 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio is currently 67.79%.

Institutional Trading of ALLETE

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ALE. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 261.0% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,083 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $70,000 after purchasing an additional 783 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 4,157.1% during the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,192 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $71,000 after purchasing an additional 1,164 shares during the period. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of ALLETE during the 2nd quarter worth $74,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. purchased a new position in ALLETE during the 2nd quarter valued at about $75,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd boosted its holdings in ALLETE by 1,118.1% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 2,156 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $129,000 after acquiring an additional 1,979 shares during the period. 76.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

ALLETE Company Profile

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.