D.A. Davidson & CO. Purchases 315 Shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

D.A. Davidson & CO. boosted its position in shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) by 1.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 16,844 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 315 shares during the quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in ALLETE were worth $1,081,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ALE. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of ALLETE by 4,157.1% during the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,192 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $71,000 after purchasing an additional 1,164 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 9.1% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 80,559 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,806,000 after buying an additional 6,695 shares during the last quarter. Comerica Bank grew its position in ALLETE by 29.3% during the first quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 32,826 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,958,000 after buying an additional 7,446 shares during the period. Boston Partners raised its position in ALLETE by 59.2% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 30,441 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,816,000 after acquiring an additional 11,321 shares during the period. Finally, CWM LLC boosted its stake in shares of ALLETE by 12.3% during the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,827 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $239,000 after acquiring an additional 420 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.55% of the company’s stock.

ALLETE Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ALE opened at $64.88 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 0.95. ALLETE, Inc. has a 1 year low of $54.90 and a 1 year high of $65.86. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $64.42 and a 200-day moving average price of $63.73. The stock has a market cap of $3.75 billion, a PE ratio of 20.79 and a beta of 0.80.

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

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th were issued a $0.705 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. This is a boost from ALLETE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. This represents a $2.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.35%. ALLETE’s payout ratio is currently 90.38%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

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.