ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at StockNews.com

StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday. The firm 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 report on Monday, September 30th. Four investment 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 currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $62.00.

ALLETE Stock Performance

ALE opened at $64.37 on Wednesday. ALLETE has a 1-year low of $55.86 and a 1-year high of $65.86. The stock has a market cap of $3.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.63 and a beta of 0.81. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $64.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $63.94. 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 (NYSE:ALE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by ($0.21). ALLETE had a net margin of 11.49% and a return on equity of 5.99%. The firm had revenue of $407.20 million during the quarter. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.49 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis.

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th were issued 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 was Friday, November 15th. This represents a $2.82 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.38%. ALLETE’s payout ratio is presently 90.38%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ALLETE

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC acquired a new position in shares of ALLETE during the third quarter worth $38,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in ALLETE by 261.0% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,083 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $70,000 after buying an additional 783 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new position in ALLETE in the 2nd quarter worth $74,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. purchased a new position in ALLETE in the 2nd quarter valued at about $75,000. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of ALLETE during the second quarter valued at about $170,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.55% of the company’s stock.

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.