ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.71

ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 25th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.705 per share by the utilities provider on Saturday, June 1st. This represents a $2.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 14th.

ALLETE has raised its dividend payment by an average of 3.1% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 14 years. ALLETE has a dividend payout ratio of 68.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect ALLETE to earn $4.02 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.82 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 70.1%.

ALLETE Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE ALE opened at $59.57 on Friday. ALLETE has a 1 year low of $49.29 and a 1 year high of $63.71. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $58.31 and its 200 day moving average price is $57.95. The firm has a market cap of $3.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.85 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 1.24.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by ($0.08). ALLETE had a return on equity of 7.31% and a net margin of 13.15%. The firm had revenue of $402.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $425.21 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.90 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that ALLETE will post 3.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ALE has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of ALLETE from $57.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Guggenheim upgraded shares of ALLETE from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $58.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, Sidoti lowered shares of ALLETE from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $64.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $58.60.

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.