ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) Shares Purchased by Quest Partners LLC

Quest Partners LLC boosted its holdings in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) by 17.7% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,844 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,478 shares during the period. Quest Partners LLC’s holdings in ALLETE were worth $614,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 716,941 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $43,848,000 after acquiring an additional 22,139 shares during the period. Principal Securities Inc. purchased a new position in ALLETE during the fourth quarter worth approximately $25,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in ALLETE by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 888,731 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $54,355,000 after purchasing an additional 24,690 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 267,075 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $16,334,000 after purchasing an additional 5,088 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners grew its stake in shares of ALLETE by 23.6% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 19,120 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,169,000 after buying an additional 3,647 shares during the period. 76.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Mizuho lifted their target price on ALLETE from $57.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 16th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on ALLETE in a research note on Thursday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to MarketBeat.com, ALLETE has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $62.00.

ALLETE Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE ALE opened at $63.78 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $63.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $61.69. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. ALLETE, Inc. has a 12-month low of $49.29 and a 12-month high of $65.86. The company has a market cap of $3.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.33 and a beta of 0.80.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by ($0.30). The company had revenue of $354.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $547.24 million. ALLETE had a net margin of 14.36% and a return on equity of 7.07%. ALLETE’s quarterly revenue was down 33.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.90 EPS.

ALLETE Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were paid a $0.7005 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.39%. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 67.79%.

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.