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

StockNews.com started coverage on shares of ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) in a report released on Wednesday morning. The brokerage issued a hold rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Separately, Mizuho upped their target price 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 MarketBeat.com, ALLETE currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $62.00.

ALLETE Stock Performance

NYSE ALE opened at $63.48 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $3.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.26 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a 50 day moving average of $63.57 and a 200-day moving average of $61.52. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. ALLETE has a 1-year low of $49.29 and a 1-year high of $65.86.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.87 by ($0.30). The firm had revenue of $354.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $547.24 million. ALLETE had a return on equity of 7.07% and a net margin of 14.36%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 33.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.90 EPS.

ALLETE Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, August 15th were issued a $0.7005 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.41%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 15th. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio is 67.79%.

Institutional Trading of ALLETE

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in ALLETE by 0.5% during 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 period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in ALLETE by 5.8% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 964,193 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $60,118,000 after purchasing an additional 52,499 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC lifted its position in ALLETE by 955.1% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 897,622 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $55,967,000 after purchasing an additional 812,548 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in ALLETE by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 716,941 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $43,848,000 after purchasing an additional 22,139 shares during the period. Finally, Gabelli Funds LLC lifted its position in ALLETE by 59.1% during the 2nd quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 441,564 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $27,532,000 after purchasing an additional 164,064 shares during the period. 76.55% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.