StockNews.com Initiates Coverage on ALLETE (NYSE:ALE)

Investment analysts at StockNews.com started coverage on shares of ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) in a research note issued on Wednesday. The brokerage set a “hold” rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

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

ALLETE Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE ALE opened at $64.61 on Wednesday. ALLETE has a 1-year low of $55.86 and a 1-year high of $65.86. The company has a 50-day moving average of $64.57 and a two-hundred day moving average of $63.95. The company has a market cap of $3.74 billion, a PE ratio of 20.71 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last issued 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 company had revenue of $407.20 million during the quarter. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.49 earnings per share. ALLETE’s quarterly revenue was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ALE. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC acquired a new position in ALLETE in the third quarter valued at about $38,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in shares of ALLETE by 261.0% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,083 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $70,000 after acquiring an additional 783 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of ALLETE in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $74,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. bought a new position in ALLETE during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $75,000. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in ALLETE during the second quarter valued at approximately $170,000. 76.55% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.