ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) Shares Sold by MetLife Investment Management LLC

MetLife Investment Management LLC decreased its stake in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 62,308 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 507 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC’s holdings in ALLETE were worth $4,000,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ALE. Boston Partners grew its stake in ALLETE by 59.2% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 30,441 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,816,000 after acquiring an additional 11,321 shares in the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC boosted its holdings in ALLETE by 249.1% during the third quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 34,367 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,206,000 after purchasing an additional 24,523 shares in the last quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in ALLETE by 147.1% in the 2nd quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 84,607 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,275,000 after buying an additional 50,361 shares in the last quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd bought a new stake in shares of ALLETE in the 2nd quarter worth about $3,572,000. Finally, Alpine Associates Management Inc. bought a new position in ALLETE in the 2nd quarter valued at $21,985,000. 76.55% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on ALE shares. Sidoti raised ALLETE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on ALLETE in a report on Sunday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Four investment 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, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $62.00.

ALLETE Stock Performance

ALLETE stock opened at $64.85 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 0.95. ALLETE, Inc. has a 1 year low of $55.60 and a 1 year high of $65.86. The business has a 50 day moving average of $64.42 and a 200-day moving average of $63.74. The company has a market capitalization of $3.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.79 and a beta of 0.80.

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

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th were paid a dividend of $0.705 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. This represents a $2.82 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.35%. This is a positive change from ALLETE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 90.38%.

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.