ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) Research Coverage Started at StockNews.com

StockNews.com started coverage on shares of ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning. The brokerage 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 note on Monday, September 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $62.00.

ALLETE Price Performance

Shares of ALE opened at $64.43 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.45. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $64.57 and a 200-day moving average price of $63.96. ALLETE has a fifty-two week low of $55.86 and a fifty-two week high of $65.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.73 billion, a PE ratio of 20.65 and a beta of 0.81.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last posted its 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). ALLETE had a return on equity of 5.99% and a net margin of 11.49%. The company had revenue of $407.20 million for the quarter. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.49 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year.

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The company 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. This represents a $2.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.38%. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 90.38%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ALLETE

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Raymond James & Associates lifted its stake in ALLETE by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 34,600 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,157,000 after acquiring an additional 623 shares during the period. Harbour Investments Inc. boosted its holdings in ALLETE by 5.0% in the second quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 14,416 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $899,000 after purchasing an additional 693 shares during the last quarter. WBI Investments LLC acquired a new stake in ALLETE during the 2nd quarter worth about $882,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. purchased a new position in shares of ALLETE during the 2nd quarter valued at about $75,000. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 9.4% in the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 14,877 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $928,000 after buying an additional 1,274 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.