ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) Receives New Coverage from Analysts at StockNews.com

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

Separately, Mizuho boosted their price target on ALLETE from $57.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Thursday, May 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have given a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $60.40.

ALLETE Price Performance

ALLETE stock opened at $62.73 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 1.66. ALLETE has a 52 week low of $49.29 and a 52 week high of $65.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.08 and a beta of 0.79. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $62.06 and a 200-day moving average of $60.26.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.97 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.09 by ($0.12). ALLETE had a return on equity of 7.21% and a net margin of 13.94%. The business had revenue of $403.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $581.26 million. On average, sell-side analysts expect that ALLETE will post 3.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ALLETE Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th were issued a $0.705 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 14th. This represents a $2.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.50%. ALLETE’s payout ratio is presently 67.79%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ALLETE

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Congress Asset Management Co. MA increased its stake in shares of ALLETE by 1.3% in the first quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. MA now owns 18,431 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,099,000 after buying an additional 233 shares during the period. Independent Advisor Alliance increased its stake in shares of ALLETE by 6.3% in the fourth quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 4,213 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $258,000 after buying an additional 249 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP increased its stake in shares of ALLETE by 131.2% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 467 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 265 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund increased its stake in shares of ALLETE by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 23,604 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,444,000 after buying an additional 295 shares during the period. Finally, Teza Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of ALLETE by 1.8% in the third quarter. Teza Capital Management LLC now owns 19,701 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,040,000 after buying an additional 348 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.55% of the company’s stock.

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.