ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) Releases Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.21 EPS

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) posted its earnings results on Wednesday. The utilities provider reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by ($0.21), Briefing.com reports. ALLETE had a net margin of 11.49% and a return on equity of 5.99%. The business had revenue of $407.20 million for the quarter. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.49 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis.

ALLETE Price Performance

ALE stock traded up $0.14 during trading on Friday, hitting $64.05. The stock had a trading volume of 207,548 shares, compared to its average volume of 358,500. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 0.83. ALLETE has a twelve month low of $53.14 and a twelve month high of $65.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.54 and a beta of 0.80. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $63.98 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $63.17.

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th will be issued a $0.705 dividend. This represents a $2.82 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.40%. This is a boost from ALLETE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 15th. ALLETE’s payout ratio is presently 90.38%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on ALE shares. Sidoti upgraded ALLETE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com started coverage on ALLETE in a research report on Wednesday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, ALLETE presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.00.

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.