Gilliland Jeter Wealth Management LLC Acquires Shares of 13,096 ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

Gilliland Jeter Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 13,096 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $801,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ALE. Allworth Financial LP boosted its position in ALLETE by 131.2% in the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 467 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 265 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp raised its stake in shares of ALLETE by 85.6% in the 3rd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 566 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 261 shares in the last quarter. Spire Wealth Management raised its stake in shares of ALLETE by 381.3% in the 3rd quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 900 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 713 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new stake in shares of ALLETE in the 4th quarter valued at about $77,000. Finally, Huntington National Bank raised its stake in shares of ALLETE by 18.8% in the 3rd quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 2,096 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $111,000 after purchasing an additional 332 shares in the last quarter. 76.55% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on ALE shares. Guggenheim upgraded shares of ALLETE from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $58.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Sidoti lowered shares of ALLETE from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $64.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of ALLETE from $57.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, ALLETE currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $58.60.

ALLETE Stock Performance

ALE traded down $0.55 on Friday, hitting $59.02. 159,670 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 239,322. The firm has a market cap of $3.40 billion, a PE ratio of 13.73 and a beta of 0.75. ALLETE, Inc. has a twelve month low of $49.29 and a twelve month high of $63.71. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $58.34 and a two-hundred day moving average of $58.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.97 by ($0.08). The business had revenue of $402.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $425.21 million. ALLETE had a return on equity of 7.31% and a net margin of 13.15%. ALLETE’s revenue was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.90 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that ALLETE, Inc. will post 3.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ALLETE Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be paid a $0.705 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 14th. This represents a $2.82 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.78%. ALLETE’s payout ratio is currently 65.58%.

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.