ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) Now Covered by StockNews.com

StockNews.com started coverage on shares of ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) in a research report sent to investors on Saturday morning. The firm issued a hold rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Separately, Sidoti upgraded shares of ALLETE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, ALLETE presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $62.00.

ALLETE Price Performance

NYSE:ALE opened at $64.93 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.81 and a beta of 0.80. ALLETE has a one year low of $54.71 and a one year high of $65.86. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $64.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $63.67. 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 data on Wednesday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) 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 business had revenue of $407.20 million during the quarter. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.49 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis.

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th will be given a dividend of $0.705 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $2.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.34%. This is a boost from ALLETE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 90.38%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ALLETE

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ALE. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of ALLETE by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,615,496 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $394,548,000 after purchasing an additional 35,992 shares during the last quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL boosted its stake in shares of ALLETE by 44.4% in the 1st quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 13,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $775,000 after purchasing an additional 4,000 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of ALLETE by 4,157.1% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,192 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $71,000 after purchasing an additional 1,164 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of ALLETE by 9.1% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 80,559 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,806,000 after acquiring an additional 6,695 shares during the period. Finally, Invenomic Capital Management LP raised its position in shares of ALLETE by 154.5% in the 1st quarter. Invenomic Capital Management LP now owns 250,895 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $14,963,000 after acquiring an additional 152,294 shares during the period. 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.