Sidoti Upgrades ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) to Strong-Buy

Sidoti upgraded shares of ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report report published on Monday, Zacks.com reports.

Separately, StockNews.com initiated coverage on ALLETE in a report on Saturday, September 28th. They issued a hold rating for the company. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $62.00.

ALLETE Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of ALE stock opened at $64.24 on Monday. ALLETE has a twelve month low of $49.29 and a twelve month high of $65.86. The company has a market capitalization of $3.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.44 and a beta of 0.80. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $63.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $62.39. 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 (NYSE:ALE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analysts’ expectations of $547.24 million. ALLETE had a net margin of 14.36% and a return on equity of 7.07%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 33.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.90 EPS.

ALLETE Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were paid a dividend of $0.7005 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.36%. ALLETE’s payout ratio is 67.79%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ALLETE

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Millennium Management LLC grew its holdings in ALLETE by 955.1% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 897,622 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $55,967,000 after buying an additional 812,548 shares in the last quarter. Alpine Associates Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of ALLETE during the second quarter valued at $21,985,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 6,668.6% during the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 239,204 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $14,941,000 after purchasing an additional 235,670 shares during the period. Water Island Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of ALLETE during the second quarter valued at about $11,583,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted 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 worth $402,402,000 after purchasing an additional 176,709 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.