Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Acquires 7,739 Shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) by 1.0% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 766,343 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 7,739 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in ALLETE were worth $49,192,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

ALLETE Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ALE opened at $64.88 on Friday. ALLETE, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $54.90 and a fifty-two week high of $65.86. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $64.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $63.73. The company has a market cap of $3.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.79 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51.

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

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th will be issued a $0.705 dividend. This is a positive change from ALLETE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. This represents a $2.82 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. ALLETE’s payout ratio is currently 90.38%.

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.