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

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

Separately, Mizuho boosted 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 research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $62.00.

ALLETE Stock Down 0.1 %

ALE stock opened at $64.27 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. ALLETE has a 1 year low of $49.29 and a 1 year high of $65.86. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $63.39 and a 200 day simple moving average of $60.97. The firm has a market cap of $3.71 billion, a PE ratio of 15.45 and a beta of 0.80.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.87 by ($0.30). ALLETE had a net margin of 14.36% and a return on equity of 7.07%. The business had revenue of $354.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $547.24 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 33.6% on a year-over-year basis.

ALLETE Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be given a dividend of $0.7005 per share. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio is 67.79%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ALE. Principal Securities Inc. bought a new position in shares of ALLETE during the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Allworth Financial LP increased 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 worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 265 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 139.4% during the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 699 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its stake in ALLETE by 4,157.1% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,192 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $71,000 after acquiring an additional 1,164 shares during the period. Finally, Hantz Financial Services Inc. bought a new stake in ALLETE in the second quarter valued at about $75,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.