HighTower Advisors LLC Sells 259 Shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

HighTower Advisors LLC cut its holdings in shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 5,456 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 259 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in ALLETE were worth $357,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in ALE. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC purchased a new position in ALLETE during the 3rd quarter valued at $38,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in shares of ALLETE by 261.0% during the third 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 during the period. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of ALLETE during the second quarter valued at about $74,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. bought a new position in ALLETE in the second quarter worth about $75,000. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in ALLETE in the second quarter worth about $170,000. Institutional investors own 76.55% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have commented on ALE shares. StockNews.com began coverage on ALLETE in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Sidoti raised shares of 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 given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.00.

ALLETE Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:ALE opened at $64.50 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $64.56 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $63.91. ALLETE, Inc. has a 12-month low of $55.86 and a 12-month high of $65.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.67 and a beta of 0.81.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.99 by ($0.21). The company 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%. ALLETE’s revenue was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.49 earnings per share.

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th were issued a dividend of $0.705 per share. This is a boost 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.37%. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio 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.