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

StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) in a research report released on Monday morning. The brokerage issued a hold rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Separately, Sidoti upgraded shares of ALLETE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $62.00.

ALLETE Stock Performance

Shares of ALE stock opened at $64.43 on Monday. ALLETE has a fifty-two week low of $52.14 and a fifty-two week high of $65.86. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $63.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $62.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The firm has a market cap of $3.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.49 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 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by ($0.30). The firm had revenue of $354.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $547.24 million. ALLETE had a return on equity of 7.07% and a net margin of 14.36%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 33.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.90 EPS.

ALLETE Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, August 15th were issued a $0.7005 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.35%. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 67.79%.

Institutional Trading of ALLETE

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in ALLETE by 261.0% during 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 during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 4,157.1% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,192 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $71,000 after buying an additional 1,164 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of ALLETE in the second quarter valued at approximately $74,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of ALLETE in the second quarter worth $75,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in ALLETE by 43.7% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,869 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $111,000 after acquiring an additional 568 shares during the period. 76.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About ALLETE

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.