ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) Shares Bought by Verition Fund Management LLC

Verition Fund Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) by 91.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 96,387 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 46,089 shares during the quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC’s holdings in ALLETE were worth $6,187,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ALE. Millennium Management LLC boosted its holdings in ALLETE by 955.1% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 897,622 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $55,967,000 after purchasing an additional 812,548 shares in the last quarter. Alpine Associates Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of ALLETE during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $21,985,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 6,668.6% in the 2nd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 239,204 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $14,941,000 after buying an additional 235,670 shares in the last quarter. Water Island Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of ALLETE in the 2nd quarter valued at $11,583,000. Finally, Gabelli Funds LLC grew its position in shares of ALLETE by 59.1% in the 2nd quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 441,564 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $27,532,000 after buying an additional 164,064 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.55% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have issued reports on ALE. Sidoti upgraded shares of ALLETE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com began coverage on ALLETE in a research report on Sunday. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $62.00.

ALLETE Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ALE opened at $64.85 on Tuesday. ALLETE, Inc. has a one year low of $55.60 and a one year high of $65.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.79 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $64.42 and a 200-day simple moving average of $63.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.45.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.99 by ($0.21). ALLETE had a net margin of 11.49% and a return on equity of 5.99%. The company had revenue of $407.20 million for the quarter. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.49 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year.

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th were given a $0.705 dividend. This represents a $2.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.35%. This is a positive change from ALLETE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 90.38%.

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.