ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) Receives New Coverage from Analysts at StockNews.com

StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) in a research note released on Tuesday. The firm issued a hold rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Separately, Sidoti upgraded 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.00.

ALLETE Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of ALLETE stock opened at $64.28 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $63.90 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $62.99. ALLETE has a 12-month low of $52.30 and a 12-month high of $65.86. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The company has a market cap of $3.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.78 and a beta of 0.80.

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

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th will be issued a $0.705 dividend. This represents a $2.82 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.39%. This is a boost from ALLETE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 73.63%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ALLETE

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of ALLETE by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 86,053 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,263,000 after purchasing an additional 3,015 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of ALLETE by 2.8% in the 4th 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. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 36.0% in the first quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 19,063 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,137,000 after buying an additional 5,045 shares during the last quarter. AlphaMark Advisors LLC bought a new stake in ALLETE during the first quarter valued at approximately $297,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its holdings in ALLETE by 157.6% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 8,993 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $536,000 after buying an additional 5,502 shares during the last quarter. 76.55% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.