ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) Shares Sold by Advisors Asset Management Inc.

Advisors Asset Management Inc. reduced its stake in shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) by 21.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 11,840 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 3,158 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in ALLETE were worth $760,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in ALE. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its position in ALLETE by 4,157.1% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,192 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $71,000 after buying an additional 1,164 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in ALLETE by 9.1% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 80,559 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,806,000 after purchasing an additional 6,695 shares during the last quarter. Comerica Bank raised its holdings in ALLETE by 29.3% during the first quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 32,826 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,958,000 after purchasing an additional 7,446 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners grew its holdings in ALLETE by 59.2% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 30,441 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,816,000 after purchasing an additional 11,321 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CWM LLC boosted its position in shares of ALLETE by 12.3% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,827 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $239,000 after buying an additional 420 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.55% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on ALE shares. Sidoti upgraded shares of ALLETE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on ALLETE in a research report on Saturday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $62.00.

ALLETE Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of ALE opened at $64.87 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.75 billion, a PE ratio of 20.79 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.45. ALLETE, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $54.71 and a fifty-two week high of $65.86. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $64.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of $63.69.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by ($0.21). The business had revenue of $407.20 million during the quarter. ALLETE had a return on equity of 5.99% and a net margin of 11.49%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.49 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year.

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th will be given a dividend of $0.705 per share. This is a positive change 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 yield of 4.35%. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio is 90.38%.

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.