ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) Shares Purchased by Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc.

Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) by 36.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 19,063 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,045 shares during the period. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in ALLETE were worth $1,137,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ALE. Congress Asset Management Co. MA lifted its position in shares of ALLETE by 1.3% during the first quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. MA now owns 18,431 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,099,000 after purchasing an additional 233 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of ALLETE by 43.7% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,869 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $111,000 after acquiring an additional 568 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 22.9% in the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,407 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $203,000 after acquiring an additional 634 shares during the last quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd raised its position in shares of ALLETE by 148.2% during the 4th quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 17,041 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,043,000 after acquiring an additional 10,175 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in ALLETE by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,579,504 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $402,402,000 after purchasing an additional 176,709 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.55% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on ALE. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of ALLETE from $57.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of ALLETE in a research note on Monday, June 24th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to MarketBeat.com, ALLETE presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.00.

ALLETE Stock Down 0.1 %

ALLETE stock opened at $62.35 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, Inc. has a one year low of $49.29 and a one year high of $65.86. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $62.39 and a 200-day simple moving average of $60.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.99 and a beta of 0.79.

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

ALLETE Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th were paid a dividend of $0.705 per share. This represents a $2.82 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.52%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 14th. ALLETE’s payout ratio is currently 67.79%.

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.