Quadrature Capital Ltd Has $1.04 Million Position in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

Quadrature Capital Ltd boosted its position in shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) by 148.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 17,041 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,175 shares during the quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd’s holdings in ALLETE were worth $1,043,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ALE. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 263.7% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 395,962 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $20,907,000 after buying an additional 287,088 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 112.0% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 504,362 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $30,847,000 after buying an additional 266,505 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,579,504 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $402,402,000 after buying an additional 176,709 shares during the period. HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of ALLETE in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $9,436,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in ALLETE by 29.7% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 564,120 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $29,786,000 after purchasing an additional 129,104 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.55% of the company’s stock.

ALLETE Stock Performance

NYSE ALE opened at $62.74 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $61.87 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $60.22. ALLETE, Inc. has a 1 year low of $49.29 and a 1 year high of $65.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.08 and a beta of 0.79.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.09 by ($0.12). ALLETE had a return on equity of 7.21% and a net margin of 13.94%. The firm had revenue of $403.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $581.26 million. As a group, research analysts anticipate that ALLETE, Inc. will post 3.75 EPS for the current year.

ALLETE Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th were given a dividend of $0.705 per share. This represents a $2.82 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 14th. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 67.79%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on ALE. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of ALLETE from $57.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 16th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of ALLETE in a report on Sunday, June 16th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $60.40.

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.