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

StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) in a report issued on Thursday. The brokerage 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 equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, ALLETE currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.00.

ALLETE Stock Performance

NYSE:ALE opened at $65.04 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.85 and a beta of 0.81. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $64.63 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $64.03. 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 has a 1 year low of $55.86 and a 1 year high of $65.86.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.99 by ($0.21). The firm had revenue of $407.20 million during the quarter. ALLETE had a return on equity of 5.99% and a net margin of 11.49%. The business’s revenue was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.49 earnings per share.

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th were issued a $0.705 dividend. This represents a $2.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.34%. This is an increase from ALLETE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio is presently 90.38%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ALE. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in ALLETE by 9.4% during the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 14,877 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $928,000 after buying an additional 1,274 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers raised its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 2.5% in the 2nd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 206,405 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $12,869,000 after acquiring an additional 4,987 shares in the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 2.2% during the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 16,143 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,007,000 after purchasing an additional 347 shares in the last quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 1,558.0% during the second quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC now owns 102,679 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,402,000 after purchasing an additional 96,486 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Trium Capital LLP bought a new position in shares of ALLETE in the second quarter worth approximately $1,922,000. 76.55% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.