Holocene Advisors LP Makes New $1.80 Million Investment in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

Holocene Advisors LP bought a new stake in shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 28,044 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,800,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of ALE. Paloma Partners Management Co purchased a new stake in ALLETE in the third quarter worth about $266,000. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of ALLETE by 31.0% in the 3rd quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. now owns 1,563 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $100,000 after purchasing an additional 370 shares during the period. Glazer Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of ALLETE during the third quarter valued at approximately $5,766,000. Verition Fund Management LLC grew its stake in ALLETE by 91.6% in the third quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 96,387 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,187,000 after purchasing an additional 46,089 shares during the period. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors raised its holdings in ALLETE by 38.2% in the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 47,341 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,039,000 after purchasing an additional 13,080 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.55% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ALE has been the topic of a number of research reports. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of ALLETE in a report on Sunday, December 1st. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Sidoti raised shares of ALLETE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $62.00.

ALLETE Trading Down 0.3 %

NYSE ALE opened at $64.54 on Friday. ALLETE, Inc. has a 12 month low of $55.86 and a 12 month high of $65.86. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $64.47 and its 200-day moving average price is $63.78. The stock has a market cap of $3.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.69 and a beta of 0.81.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.78 EPS 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 revenue was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.49 earnings per share.

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th were given a dividend of $0.705 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. This represents a $2.82 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.37%. This is an increase from ALLETE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 90.38%.

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.