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

StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) in a report issued on Monday morning. The brokerage issued a hold rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Separately, Mizuho raised their price target on shares of ALLETE from $57.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Thursday, May 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have issued a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $60.40.

ALLETE Stock Performance

Shares of ALE opened at $62.63 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The firm has a market cap of $3.61 billion, a PE ratio of 15.06 and a beta of 0.79. ALLETE has a 12 month low of $49.29 and a 12 month high of $65.86. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $62.26 and a 200-day moving average price of $60.28.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.97 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.09 by ($0.12). The business had revenue of $403.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $581.26 million. ALLETE had a net margin of 13.94% and a return on equity of 7.21%. Equities research analysts predict that ALLETE will post 3.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ALLETE Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, June 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 15th were given a dividend of $0.705 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 14th. This represents a $2.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.50%. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio is presently 67.79%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ALLETE

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of ALLETE by 0.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,615,496 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $394,548,000 after buying an additional 35,992 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,254,365 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $66,230,000 after purchasing an additional 6,421 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of ALLETE by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 888,731 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $54,355,000 after purchasing an additional 24,690 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in ALLETE by 13.9% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 829,564 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $43,801,000 after buying an additional 101,229 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in ALLETE by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 716,941 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $43,848,000 after buying an additional 22,139 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.