ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at StockNews.com

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

Separately, Sidoti raised shares of ALLETE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, ALLETE presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.00.

ALLETE Stock Performance

Shares of ALE opened at $64.93 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $64.31 and its 200 day moving average price is $63.67. ALLETE has a 52 week low of $54.71 and a 52 week high of $65.86. The company has a market capitalization of $3.75 billion, a PE ratio of 20.81 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.45.

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

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be given a $0.705 dividend. This represents a $2.82 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.34%. This is an increase from ALLETE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 15th. ALLETE’s payout ratio is currently 90.38%.

Institutional Trading of ALLETE

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ALE. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,615,496 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $394,548,000 after buying an additional 35,992 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,459,692 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $157,888,000 after buying an additional 13,335 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,395,362 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $89,584,000 after buying an additional 21,850 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 5.8% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 964,193 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $60,118,000 after buying an additional 52,499 shares during the period. Finally, Millennium Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 955.1% during 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 during the period. 76.55% of the stock is owned by 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.