ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) Research Coverage Started at StockNews.com

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

Separately, Mizuho increased their price target on shares of ALLETE from $57.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Thursday, May 16th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, ALLETE presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $62.00.

ALLETE Trading Up 0.4 %

NYSE ALE opened at $61.93 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $62.56 and its two-hundred day moving average is $60.34. ALLETE has a 12 month low of $49.29 and a 12 month high of $65.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.66 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.89 and a beta of 0.80.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.09 by ($0.12). The business had revenue of $403.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $581.26 million. ALLETE had a return on equity of 7.21% and a net margin of 13.94%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that ALLETE will post 3.75 earnings per share for the current year.

ALLETE Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, June 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 15th were issued a $0.705 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 14th. This represents a $2.82 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.55%. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 67.79%.

Institutional Trading of ALLETE

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ALE. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in ALLETE by 263.7% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 395,962 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $20,907,000 after acquiring an additional 287,088 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in ALLETE by 112.0% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 504,362 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $30,847,000 after acquiring an additional 266,505 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in ALLETE by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,579,504 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $402,402,000 after acquiring an additional 176,709 shares in the last quarter. HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in ALLETE in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $9,436,000. Finally, Invenomic Capital Management LP raised its holdings in ALLETE by 154.5% in the first 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.