ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) Lifted to Strong-Buy at Sidoti

Sidoti upgraded shares of ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report report published on Monday, Zacks.com reports.

Separately, StockNews.com began coverage on ALLETE in a research report on Saturday, September 28th. They issued a hold rating on the stock. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $62.00.

ALLETE Stock Up 0.2 %

ALLETE stock opened at $64.24 on Monday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $63.87 and its 200 day moving average price is $62.39. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The firm has a market cap of $3.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.44 and a beta of 0.80. ALLETE has a 52 week low of $49.29 and a 52 week high of $65.86.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by ($0.30). The business had revenue of $354.50 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $547.24 million. ALLETE had a return on equity of 7.07% and a net margin of 14.36%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.90 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 33.6% compared to the same quarter last year.

ALLETE Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were paid a $0.7005 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. ALLETE’s payout ratio is presently 67.79%.

Institutional Trading of ALLETE

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of ALLETE by 139.4% in the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 699 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its position in ALLETE by 4,157.1% during the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,192 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $71,000 after purchasing an additional 1,164 shares during the period. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of ALLETE during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $74,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of ALLETE in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $75,000. Finally, Clear Street Markets LLC acquired a new stake in shares of ALLETE in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $92,000. 76.55% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.