ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at StockNews.com

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

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

ALLETE Stock Performance

Shares of ALLETE stock opened at $64.56 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $63.05 and its two-hundred day moving average is $60.57. The company has a market capitalization of $3.73 billion, a PE ratio of 15.52 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 1.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. ALLETE has a 52 week low of $49.29 and a 52 week high of $65.86.

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 the consensus estimate of $1.09 by ($0.12). ALLETE had a return on equity of 7.21% and a net margin of 13.94%. The firm had revenue of $403.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $581.26 million. As a group, analysts expect that ALLETE will post 3.75 earnings per share for the current year.

ALLETE Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be paid a $0.7005 dividend. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 67.79%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ALLETE

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in ALLETE in the first quarter valued at about $854,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in ALLETE by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 888,731 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $54,355,000 after buying an additional 24,690 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners raised its stake in ALLETE by 23.6% in the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 19,120 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,169,000 after buying an additional 3,647 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 167.1% in the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 34,723 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,071,000 after purchasing an additional 21,725 shares during the period. Finally, Gilliland Jeter Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of ALLETE in the fourth quarter valued at about $801,000. 76.55% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.