International Assets Investment Management LLC Buys New Shares in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 20,091 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $12,900,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of ALLETE in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $854,000. Boston Partners lifted its position in shares of ALLETE by 59.2% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 30,441 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,816,000 after acquiring an additional 11,321 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in shares of ALLETE by 167.1% in the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 34,723 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,071,000 after acquiring an additional 21,725 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. lifted its position in shares of ALLETE by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 308,300 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $18,387,000 after acquiring an additional 7,981 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of ALLETE by 0.5% in the 1st 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. 76.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ALE has been the subject of several research analyst reports. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of ALLETE in a research report on Wednesday. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Sidoti upgraded shares of 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, ALLETE presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.00.

ALLETE Stock Down 0.2 %

ALLETE stock opened at $64.00 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $3.70 billion, a PE ratio of 15.38 and a beta of 0.80. 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’s 50 day moving average price is $63.95 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $63.12. ALLETE, Inc. has a twelve month low of $52.89 and a twelve month high of $65.86.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 33.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.90 EPS.

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 positive change from ALLETE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $2.82 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.41%. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio is 67.79%.

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.