ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) Shares Sold by Fmr LLC

Fmr LLC cut its holdings in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 936,170 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 5,084 shares during the period. Fmr LLC owned about 1.62% of ALLETE worth $60,093,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ALE. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC purchased a new stake in shares of ALLETE in the third quarter valued at about $38,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in ALLETE by 261.0% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,083 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $70,000 after buying an additional 783 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new stake in ALLETE in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $74,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. acquired a new stake in ALLETE during the 2nd quarter valued at $75,000. Finally, Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new position in ALLETE during the second quarter worth $158,000. 76.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com assumed coverage on ALLETE in a research report on Sunday, December 1st. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Sidoti upgraded ALLETE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $62.00.

ALLETE Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of ALE stock opened at $64.54 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $64.47 and its 200-day simple moving average is $63.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 0.95. ALLETE, Inc. has a 1-year low of $55.86 and a 1-year high of $65.86. The firm has a market cap of $3.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.69 and a beta of 0.81.

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

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th were issued a $0.705 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. This represents a $2.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.37%. This is a boost from ALLETE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 90.38%.

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.