Creative Planning Has $1.41 Million Stock Holdings in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

Creative Planning grew its stake in shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) by 4.7% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 21,963 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 991 shares during the quarter. Creative Planning’s holdings in ALLETE were worth $1,410,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Inspire Investing LLC increased its holdings in ALLETE by 98.9% in the 3rd quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 11,184 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $718,000 after buying an additional 5,561 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its position 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 acquiring an additional 783 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its stake in ALLETE by 13.7% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 4,352 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $279,000 after acquiring an additional 525 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new position in ALLETE during the second quarter valued at approximately $74,000. Finally, Water Island Capital LLC bought a new stake in ALLETE during the second quarter worth $11,583,000. 76.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com assumed coverage on ALLETE in a research note on Wednesday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Sidoti upgraded ALLETE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $62.00.

ALLETE Stock Performance

Shares of ALLETE stock opened at $64.00 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $63.95 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $63.12. ALLETE, Inc. has a 1-year low of $52.89 and a 1-year high of $65.86. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The company has a market cap of $3.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.38 and a beta of 0.80.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last issued 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 company had revenue of $354.50 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $547.24 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 33.6% compared to the same quarter last year.

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.705 per share. This is an increase from ALLETE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $2.82 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.41%. ALLETE’s payout ratio is currently 67.79%.

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.