Nisa Investment Advisors LLC Sells 4,910 Shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC cut its stake in shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) by 10.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 40,558 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 4,910 shares during the quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC owned approximately 0.07% of ALLETE worth $2,481,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Alps Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of ALLETE by 41.4% during the 3rd quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 8,976 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $474,000 after acquiring an additional 2,626 shares during the period. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. grew its stake in shares of ALLETE by 214.3% during the 3rd quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 339,627 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $17,932,000 after acquiring an additional 231,582 shares during the period. Gotham Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of ALLETE by 102.9% during the 3rd quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 42,446 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,241,000 after acquiring an additional 21,528 shares during the period. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd boosted its stake in ALLETE by 13.9% in the 3rd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 77,881 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,112,000 after purchasing an additional 9,478 shares during the period. Finally, Jump Financial LLC bought a new position in ALLETE in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $2,218,000. 76.55% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

ALLETE Stock Performance

NYSE:ALE opened at $58.33 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $58.17 and its 200 day moving average is $57.57. ALLETE, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $49.29 and a fifty-two week high of $65.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.36 billion, a PE ratio of 13.57 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 1.24.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by ($0.08). ALLETE had a return on equity of 7.31% and a net margin of 13.15%. The business had revenue of $402.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $425.21 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.90 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that ALLETE, Inc. will post 3.75 earnings per share for the current year.

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 15th were paid a $0.705 dividend. This is a positive change from ALLETE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 14th. This represents a $2.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.83%. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 65.58%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on ALE. Guggenheim upgraded ALLETE from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $58.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on ALLETE from $57.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Sidoti cut ALLETE from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $64.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have issued a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $58.60.

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.