Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB Acquires Shares of 4,394 ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new stake in shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 4,394 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $282,000.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC purchased a new position in shares of ALLETE in the 3rd quarter valued at about $38,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in shares of ALLETE by 261.0% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,083 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $70,000 after purchasing an additional 783 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of ALLETE in the 2nd quarter valued at about $74,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. purchased a new position in shares of ALLETE in the 2nd quarter valued at about $75,000. Finally, Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of ALLETE in the 2nd quarter valued at about $158,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.55% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on ALE. Sidoti upgraded ALLETE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com began coverage on ALLETE in a report on Tuesday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, ALLETE has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $62.00.

ALLETE Trading Up 0.0 %

ALE stock opened at $64.68 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. ALLETE, Inc. has a 12-month low of $55.86 and a 12-month high of $65.86. The stock has a market cap of $3.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.73 and a beta of 0.81. The business’s 50-day moving average is $64.55 and its 200 day moving average is $63.89.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.99 by ($0.21). The company had revenue of $407.20 million for the quarter. ALLETE had a return on equity of 5.99% and a net margin of 11.49%. ALLETE’s revenue was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.49 EPS.

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th were issued a dividend of $0.705 per share. This is a boost from ALLETE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. This represents a $2.82 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.36%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. ALLETE’s payout ratio is currently 90.38%.

ALLETE 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.