ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) Upgraded to Strong-Buy at Sidoti

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

Separately, StockNews.com started coverage on ALLETE in a report on Saturday, September 28th. They set a hold rating for the company. Four 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, ALLETE has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $62.00.

ALLETE Stock Performance

NYSE ALE opened at $64.26 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The stock has a market cap of $3.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.45 and a beta of 0.80. ALLETE has a fifty-two week low of $50.29 and a fifty-two week high of $65.86. The business has a fifty day moving average of $63.87 and a 200-day moving average of $62.39.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.87 by ($0.30). ALLETE had a net margin of 14.36% and a return on equity of 7.07%. The firm had revenue of $354.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $547.24 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 33.6% compared to the same quarter last year.

ALLETE Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed 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. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.36%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 15th. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio is presently 67.79%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ALLETE

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of ALLETE during the 2nd quarter valued at about $74,000. Water Island Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of ALLETE during the second quarter valued at approximately $11,583,000. Creative Planning lifted its position in shares of ALLETE by 204.1% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 20,972 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,308,000 after purchasing an additional 14,076 shares in the last quarter. Algert Global LLC boosted its stake in shares of ALLETE by 16.5% in the second quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 40,988 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,556,000 after purchasing an additional 5,808 shares during the period. Finally, Millennium Management LLC grew its holdings in ALLETE by 955.1% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 897,622 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $55,967,000 after purchasing an additional 812,548 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.