ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) Earns Hold Rating from Analysts at StockNews.com

StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) in a report issued on Thursday. The brokerage issued a hold rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Separately, Mizuho raised their price objective on ALLETE from $57.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Thursday, May 16th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $62.00.

ALLETE Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of ALE opened at $63.70 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $3.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.31 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.66 and a quick ratio of 0.96. ALLETE has a 1 year low of $49.29 and a 1 year high of $65.86. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $62.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $60.47.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.09 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $403.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $581.26 million. ALLETE had a return on equity of 7.21% and a net margin of 13.94%. On average, equities analysts expect that ALLETE will post 3.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ALLETE Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, June 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 15th were paid a dividend of $0.705 per share. This represents a $2.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 14th. ALLETE’s payout ratio is 67.79%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ALLETE

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of ALLETE by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,615,496 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $394,548,000 after buying an additional 35,992 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in ALLETE by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 888,731 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $54,355,000 after acquiring an additional 24,690 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in ALLETE by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 716,941 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $43,848,000 after acquiring an additional 22,139 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in ALLETE by 112.0% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 504,362 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $30,847,000 after purchasing an additional 266,505 shares during the period. Finally, Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 7,981 shares during the last quarter. 76.55% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.