Inspire Advisors LLC Purchases 450 Shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

Inspire Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) by 1.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 29,347 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 450 shares during the period. Inspire Advisors LLC owned 0.05% of ALLETE worth $1,884,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ALE. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in ALLETE by 261.0% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,083 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $70,000 after purchasing an additional 783 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its stake in ALLETE by 4,157.1% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,192 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $71,000 after purchasing an additional 1,164 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new stake in ALLETE in the second quarter valued at $74,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. bought a new stake in ALLETE in the second quarter valued at $75,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in ALLETE by 43.7% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,869 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $111,000 after purchasing an additional 568 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.55% of the company’s stock.

ALLETE Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE ALE traded up $0.04 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $64.46. 60,713 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 363,872. The stock has a market cap of $3.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.49 and a beta of 0.80. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $63.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $62.80. ALLETE, Inc. has a 1-year low of $52.14 and a 1-year high of $65.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 0.83.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last released its quarterly 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). 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 33.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.90 earnings per share.

ALLETE Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were paid a $0.7005 dividend. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. ALLETE’s payout ratio is 67.79%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on ALE. Sidoti raised shares of ALLETE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of ALLETE in a report on Monday. They set 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $62.00.

ALLETE 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.