Analysts Set ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) PT at $60.40

Shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) have earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the four brokerages that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $62.00.

ALE has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Mizuho raised their target price on ALLETE from $57.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 16th. StockNews.com began coverage on ALLETE in a report on Tuesday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock.

ALLETE Price Performance

NYSE:ALE opened at $62.14 on Tuesday. ALLETE has a 52 week low of $49.29 and a 52 week high of $65.86. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 1.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.58 billion, a PE ratio of 14.94 and a beta of 0.80. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $62.43 and its 200-day moving average price is $60.31.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last posted its 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). ALLETE had a net margin of 13.94% and a return on equity of 7.21%. The business had revenue of $403.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $581.26 million. As a group, equities analysts expect that ALLETE will post 3.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ALLETE Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th were given a dividend of $0.705 per share. This represents a $2.82 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 14th. ALLETE’s payout ratio is presently 67.79%.

Institutional Trading of ALLETE

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ALE. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of ALLETE by 263.7% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 395,962 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $20,907,000 after buying an additional 287,088 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in shares of ALLETE by 112.0% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 504,362 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $30,847,000 after buying an additional 266,505 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of ALLETE by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,579,504 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $402,402,000 after buying an additional 176,709 shares during the period. HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of ALLETE during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $9,436,000. Finally, Invenomic Capital Management LP raised its position in shares of ALLETE by 154.5% during the 1st quarter. Invenomic Capital Management LP now owns 250,895 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $14,963,000 after buying an additional 152,294 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.55% of the company’s stock.

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.