Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Has $232,000 Stock Holdings in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio trimmed its position in shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) by 61.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,402 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 7,072 shares during the quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio’s holdings in ALLETE were worth $232,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Alps Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of ALLETE by 41.4% during the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 8,976 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $474,000 after purchasing an additional 2,626 shares in the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of ALLETE by 214.3% during the third quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 339,627 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $17,932,000 after purchasing an additional 231,582 shares in the last quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of ALLETE by 102.9% during the third quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 42,446 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,241,000 after purchasing an additional 21,528 shares in the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd raised its position in shares of ALLETE by 13.9% during the third quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 77,881 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,112,000 after acquiring an additional 9,478 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jump Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of ALLETE during the third quarter worth about $2,218,000. 76.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

ALLETE Trading Up 2.1 %

NYSE ALE opened at $58.79 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $3.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.75. ALLETE, Inc. has a 52 week low of $49.29 and a 52 week high of $66.69. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $58.09 and a 200-day moving average price of $57.24. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 1.24 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 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.97 by ($0.08). The firm had revenue of $402.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $425.21 million. ALLETE had a net margin of 13.15% and a return on equity of 7.31%. The company’s revenue was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that ALLETE, Inc. will post 3.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, February 15th were given a dividend of $0.705 per share. This is a boost from ALLETE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 14th. This represents a $2.82 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.80%. ALLETE’s payout ratio is presently 65.58%.

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.