ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) Receives New Coverage from Analysts at StockNews.com

StockNews.com started coverage on shares of ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday. The firm issued a hold rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Separately, Sidoti upgraded shares of ALLETE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $62.00.

ALLETE Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of ALLETE stock opened at $64.13 on Tuesday. ALLETE has a 1 year low of $52.14 and a 1 year high of $65.86. The firm has a market cap of $3.70 billion, a PE ratio of 15.42 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $63.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $62.91.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 the consensus estimate of $547.24 million. ALLETE had a return on equity of 7.07% and a net margin of 14.36%. The company’s revenue was down 33.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.90 earnings per share.

ALLETE Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, August 15th were paid a $0.7005 dividend. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.37%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 15th. ALLETE’s payout ratio is 67.79%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ALLETE

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in ALLETE by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 18,928 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,215,000 after purchasing an additional 327 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in ALLETE in the 3rd quarter worth about $12,900,000. Inspire Advisors LLC boosted its stake in ALLETE by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC now owns 29,347 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,884,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning boosted its stake in ALLETE by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 21,963 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,410,000 after purchasing an additional 991 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC boosted its stake in ALLETE by 98.9% in the 3rd quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 11,184 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $718,000 after purchasing an additional 5,561 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.55% of the company’s stock.

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.