ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) Issues Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.30 EPS

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The utilities provider reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by ($0.30), Briefing.com reports. The firm had revenue of $354.50 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $547.24 million. ALLETE had a return on equity of 7.07% and a net margin of 14.36%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 33.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.90 EPS.

ALLETE Price Performance

Shares of ALE traded up $0.60 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $64.65. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 508,616 shares, compared to its average volume of 418,477. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $63.18 and a 200 day simple moving average of $60.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.54 and a beta of 0.80. ALLETE has a 1-year low of $49.29 and a 1-year high of $65.86.

ALLETE Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be issued a $0.7005 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.33%. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio is currently 67.79%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on ALE. Mizuho lifted their target price on ALLETE from $57.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. StockNews.com began coverage on ALLETE in a research note on Saturday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to MarketBeat, ALLETE presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.00.

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.