ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) Sees Unusually-High Trading Volume – Here’s What Happened

ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) shares saw strong trading volume on Wednesday . 408,065 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 17% from the previous session’s volume of 349,611 shares.The stock last traded at $65.19 and had previously closed at $65.45.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have commented on ALE shares. Sidoti raised ALLETE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com began coverage on ALLETE in a report on Friday, January 10th. 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $61.33.

ALLETE Trading Up 0.1 %

The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $64.81 and a 200 day simple moving average of $64.18. The company has a market cap of $3.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.06 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by ($0.21). ALLETE had a return on equity of 5.99% and a net margin of 11.49%. The business had revenue of $407.20 million during the quarter. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.49 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis.

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th were issued a dividend of $0.705 per share. This represents a $2.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.29%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. This is a boost from ALLETE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. ALLETE’s payout ratio is 90.38%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ALE. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale bought a new stake in shares of ALLETE during the 2nd quarter worth about $677,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 5.8% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 964,193 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $60,118,000 after buying an additional 52,499 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its stake in ALLETE by 40.9% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 59,299 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,697,000 after buying an additional 17,200 shares in the last quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in ALLETE by 147.1% during the second quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 84,607 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,275,000 after acquiring an additional 50,361 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its position in ALLETE by 6.7% in the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 7,102 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $443,000 after acquiring an additional 447 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.55% of the company’s stock.

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.