ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) Research Coverage Started at StockNews.com

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

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

ALLETE Price Performance

ALE stock opened at $63.80 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. ALLETE has a 12 month low of $49.29 and a 12 month high of $65.86. The firm has a market cap of $3.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.34 and a beta of 0.80. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $63.20 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $60.73.

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

ALLETE Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, September 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, August 15th will be given a dividend of $0.7005 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.39%. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio is presently 67.79%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ALE. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of ALLETE by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,579,504 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $402,402,000 after purchasing an additional 176,709 shares during the period. Invenomic Capital Management LP lifted its position in shares of ALLETE by 154.5% in the 1st quarter. Invenomic Capital Management LP now owns 250,895 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $14,963,000 after purchasing an additional 152,294 shares during the period. New York Life Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of ALLETE by 1,558.0% in the 2nd quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC now owns 102,679 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,402,000 after acquiring an additional 96,486 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of ALLETE in the 4th quarter valued at $3,965,000. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its stake in shares of ALLETE by 125.1% in the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 116,512 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $7,126,000 after acquiring an additional 64,746 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.55% of the company’s stock.

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.