ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) Earns Hold Rating from Analysts at StockNews.com

StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) in a research note published on Tuesday morning. 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 note on Monday, September 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, ALLETE has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.00.

ALLETE Price Performance

ALE stock opened at $64.60 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $64.56 and its 200 day moving average price is $63.90. The firm has a market cap of $3.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.71 and a beta of 0.81. 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 has a 1 year low of $55.86 and a 1 year high of $65.86.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by ($0.21). The company had revenue of $407.20 million during the quarter. ALLETE had a return on equity of 5.99% and a net margin of 11.49%. The firm’s revenue was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.49 earnings per share.

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th were paid a $0.705 dividend. This is a positive change from ALLETE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. This represents a $2.82 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio is presently 90.38%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. D.A. Davidson & CO. grew its holdings in ALLETE by 1.9% in the third quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 16,844 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,081,000 after purchasing an additional 315 shares during the period. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 18,928 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,215,000 after purchasing an additional 327 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System grew its stake in shares of ALLETE by 2.2% during the 2nd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 16,143 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,007,000 after buying an additional 347 shares during the period. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 31.0% during the 3rd quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. now owns 1,563 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $100,000 after buying an additional 370 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of ALLETE by 14.8% in the 3rd quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,135 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $201,000 after buying an additional 405 shares during the period. 76.55% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.