ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) Coverage Initiated at StockNews.com

Stock analysts at StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) in a report released on Tuesday. The brokerage set a “hold” rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Separately, Mizuho increased their target price on shares of ALLETE from $57.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 16th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to MarketBeat, ALLETE presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.00.

ALLETE Trading Up 0.4 %

ALLETE stock opened at $61.93 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $62.51 and a 200 day moving average price of $60.33. ALLETE has a 52 week low of $49.29 and a 52 week high of $65.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 1.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.89 and a beta of 0.80.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Principal Securities Inc. bought a new position in shares of ALLETE during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Allworth Financial LP raised its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 131.2% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 467 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 265 shares in the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its holdings in ALLETE by 139.4% in the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 699 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 407 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in ALLETE by 4,157.1% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,192 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $71,000 after acquiring an additional 1,164 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new position in ALLETE in the 4th quarter worth $77,000. 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.