Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Buys 5,420 Shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) by 0.8% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 674,082 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,420 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in ALLETE were worth $43,391,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in shares of ALLETE by 14.2% during the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 509,112 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $32,772,000 after purchasing an additional 63,344 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of ALLETE by 5.2% during the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 38,164 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,457,000 after purchasing an additional 1,870 shares in the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers boosted its position in shares of ALLETE by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 214,043 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $13,778,000 after purchasing an additional 809 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its position in shares of ALLETE by 4.9% during the 1st quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 12,291 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $791,000 after purchasing an additional 571 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. boosted its position in shares of ALLETE by 4.4% during the 1st quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 8,016 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $516,000 after purchasing an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.94% of the company’s stock.

ALLETE Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE:ALE opened at $54.69 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.14 billion, a PE ratio of 16.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 0.73. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $56.73 and its 200 day moving average is $60.16. ALLETE, Inc. has a 12 month low of $47.77 and a 12 month high of $67.45.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $533.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $446.41 million. ALLETE had a net margin of 10.20% and a return on equity of 5.81%. ALLETE’s revenue was up 43.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.67 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that ALLETE, Inc. will post 3.63 earnings per share for the current year.

ALLETE Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 15th were issued a $0.678 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 14th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.96%. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 79.47%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on ALE. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of ALLETE in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Guggenheim dropped their price target on shares of ALLETE from $54.00 to $49.00 in a research report on Friday, July 7th. Mizuho dropped their price target on shares of ALLETE from $64.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 9th. Finally, Bank of America cut shares of ALLETE from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $63.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $60.83.

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. 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.