Eaton Vance Management Raises Stock Position in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

Eaton Vance Management grew its holdings in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE – Get Rating) by 0.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 26,482 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 207 shares during the period. Eaton Vance Management’s holdings in ALLETE were worth $1,325,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ALE. Quadrant Capital Group LLC grew its stake in shares of ALLETE by 41.8% in the 3rd quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 563 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 166 shares in the last quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of ALLETE during the 2nd quarter worth about $29,000. BerganKDV Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of ALLETE by 73.8% during the 3rd quarter. BerganKDV Wealth Management LLC now owns 944 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 401 shares during the period. Signaturefd LLC boosted its stake in shares of ALLETE by 45.6% during the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,300 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $65,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares during the period. Finally, CNB Bank purchased a new position in shares of ALLETE during the 2nd quarter worth about $82,000. 77.52% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on ALE. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of ALLETE from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 17th. Bank of America raised shares of ALLETE from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $53.00 to $66.00 in a research report on Monday, November 14th. StockNews.com cut shares of ALLETE from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday. Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of ALLETE from $66.00 to $64.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of ALLETE from $67.00 to $65.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, ALLETE presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.80.

ALLETE Trading Up 1.0 %

NYSE:ALE opened at $62.25 on Monday. ALLETE, Inc. has a one year low of $47.77 and a one year high of $68.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a current ratio of 1.00. The firm has a market cap of $3.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.72. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $62.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $60.28.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 16th. The utilities provider reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.11 by ($0.21). The firm had revenue of $425.80 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $404.81 million. ALLETE had a return on equity of 5.73% and a net margin of 12.05%. The company’s revenue was up 6.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.18 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that ALLETE, Inc. will post 3.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 15th were paid a dividend of $0.678 per share. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.36%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 14th. This is a positive change from ALLETE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. ALLETE’s payout ratio is 79.71%.

ALLETE Profile

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ALLETE, Inc engages in the provision of electric and natural gas utility services. It operates through the following business segments: Regulated Operations, ALLETE Clean Energy, and Corporate and Other. The Regulated Operations segment includes regulated utilities, Minnesota Power, SWL&P, and investment in ATC, which regulates utilities that own and maintain electric transmission assets.