ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) to Issue Dividend Increase – $0.71 Per Share

ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, October 25th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.705 per share by the utilities provider on Sunday, December 1st. This represents a $2.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.39%. This is a boost from ALLETE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70.

ALLETE has increased its dividend by an average of 3.1% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 14 years. ALLETE has a dividend payout ratio of 69.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings.

ALLETE Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ALE traded down $0.04 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $64.30. 163,450 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 361,195. The firm has a market cap of $3.71 billion, a PE ratio of 16.81 and a beta of 0.80. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $63.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is $62.97. ALLETE has a 12 month low of $52.30 and a 12 month high of $65.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 1.45.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by ($0.30). ALLETE had a net margin of 14.36% and a return on equity of 7.07%. The company had revenue of $354.50 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $547.24 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.90 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 33.6% compared to the same quarter last year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ALE has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com initiated coverage on ALLETE in a report on Tuesday. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Sidoti raised ALLETE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $62.00.

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.