Van ECK Associates Corp Purchases 1,086 Shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) by 7.3% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 15,963 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,086 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in ALLETE were worth $1,026,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake 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 worth $394,548,000 after acquiring an additional 35,992 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 52,499 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 812,548 shares during the period. Gabelli Funds LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 164,064 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 34,810 shares during the period. 76.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on ALE shares. StockNews.com started coverage on ALLETE in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Sidoti raised ALLETE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, ALLETE currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $62.00.

ALLETE Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:ALE opened at $65.24 on Tuesday. ALLETE, Inc. has a 12-month low of $53.14 and a 12-month high of $65.86. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $64.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $63.47. The company has a market capitalization of $3.77 billion, a PE ratio of 20.91 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.99 by ($0.21). ALLETE had a net margin of 11.49% and a return on equity of 5.99%. The company had revenue of $407.20 million during the quarter. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.49 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year.

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.705 per share. This is a boost from ALLETE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $2.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.32%. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 90.38%.

ALLETE 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.