ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) Coverage Initiated at StockNews.com

StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) in a note issued to investors on Monday. The brokerage set a “hold” rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Separately, 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $62.00.

ALLETE Trading Down 0.0 %

ALE stock opened at $64.34 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $63.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $62.71. ALLETE has a fifty-two week low of $52.14 and a fifty-two week high of $65.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 1.45. The firm has a market cap of $3.72 billion, a PE ratio of 15.47 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 for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by ($0.30). The business had revenue of $354.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $547.24 million. ALLETE had a net margin of 14.36% and a return on equity of 7.07%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 33.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.90 earnings per share.

Institutional Trading of ALLETE

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 0.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,615,496 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $394,548,000 after acquiring an additional 35,992 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in ALLETE by 5.8% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 964,193 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $60,118,000 after purchasing an additional 52,499 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in ALLETE by 955.1% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 897,622 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $55,967,000 after purchasing an additional 812,548 shares in the last quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC raised its holdings in ALLETE by 59.1% in the second quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 441,564 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $27,532,000 after purchasing an additional 164,064 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in ALLETE by 9.9% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 385,750 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $24,052,000 after purchasing an additional 34,810 shares in the last quarter. 76.55% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.