ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.71

ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 25th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.705 per share by the utilities provider on Saturday, June 1st. This represents a $2.82 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.78%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 14th.

ALLETE has raised its dividend by an average of 3.1% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 14 years. ALLETE has a dividend payout ratio of 68.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect ALLETE to earn $4.02 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.82 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 70.1%.

ALLETE Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of ALE opened at $59.04 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $58.34 and its 200 day moving average is $58.00. ALLETE has a fifty-two week low of $49.29 and a fifty-two week high of $63.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.40 billion, a PE ratio of 13.73 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 1.24.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by ($0.08). ALLETE had a net margin of 13.15% and a return on equity of 7.31%. The firm had revenue of $402.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $425.21 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that ALLETE will post 3.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ALE has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Sidoti cut shares of ALLETE from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $64.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of ALLETE from $57.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Guggenheim upgraded shares of ALLETE from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $58.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, ALLETE currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $58.60.

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.