Strs Ohio Sells 1,400 Shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

Strs Ohio lowered its holdings in shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) by 6.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 19,700 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,400 shares during the period. Strs Ohio’s holdings in ALLETE were worth $1,204,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Allworth Financial LP grew its holdings in ALLETE by 131.2% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 467 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 265 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its holdings in ALLETE by 85.6% during the third quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 566 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 261 shares during the period. Spire Wealth Management grew its holdings in ALLETE by 381.3% during the third quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 900 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 713 shares during the period. Huntington National Bank grew its holdings in ALLETE by 18.8% during the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 2,096 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $111,000 after purchasing an additional 332 shares during the period. Finally, TIAA Trust National Association bought a new stake in shares of ALLETE during the third quarter worth approximately $214,000. Institutional investors own 76.55% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

ALLETE Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of ALE stock opened at $59.96 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The stock has a market cap of $3.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.94 and a beta of 0.75. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $58.21 and a 200 day simple moving average of $57.89. ALLETE, Inc. has a 1 year low of $49.29 and a 1 year high of $64.24.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.97 by ($0.08). The company had revenue of $402.70 million during 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 quarterly revenue was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.90 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that ALLETE, Inc. will post 3.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, February 15th were paid a $0.705 dividend. This is a boost from ALLETE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. This represents a $2.82 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.70%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 14th. ALLETE’s payout ratio is 65.58%.

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.