Captrust Financial Advisors Raises Position in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

Captrust Financial Advisors increased its holdings in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) by 38.2% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 47,341 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 13,080 shares during the quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors’ holdings in ALLETE were worth $3,039,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ALE. D.A. Davidson & CO. raised its position in ALLETE by 1.9% during the third quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 16,844 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,081,000 after purchasing an additional 315 shares in the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. raised its position in ALLETE by 1.8% during the third quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 18,928 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,215,000 after purchasing an additional 327 shares in the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System raised its position in ALLETE by 2.2% during the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 16,143 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,007,000 after purchasing an additional 347 shares in the last quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. raised its position in ALLETE by 14.8% during the third quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,135 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $201,000 after purchasing an additional 405 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CWM LLC raised its position in ALLETE by 12.3% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,827 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $239,000 after purchasing an additional 420 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.55% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Sidoti raised ALLETE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on ALLETE in a research note on Sunday. They set 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $62.00.

ALLETE Stock Performance

ALLETE stock opened at $64.73 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $64.45 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $63.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.45. The stock has a market cap of $3.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.70 and a beta of 0.81. ALLETE, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $55.82 and a fifty-two week high of $65.86.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $407.20 million for the quarter. ALLETE had a net margin of 11.49% and a return on equity of 5.99%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.49 earnings per share.

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The firm 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 represents a $2.82 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.36%. This is a positive change from ALLETE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.