Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. Trims Stock Holdings in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. decreased its stake in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) by 3.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,953 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 674 shares during the quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc.’s holdings in ALLETE were worth $1,037,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of ALE. American Century Companies Inc. purchased a new stake in ALLETE in the first quarter worth about $204,000. HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of ALLETE by 10.9% in the first quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 4,374 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $293,000 after acquiring an additional 431 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund bought a new position in shares of ALLETE in the first quarter worth about $1,252,000. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can boosted its stake in shares of ALLETE by 11.7% in the first quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 30,291 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,085,000 after acquiring an additional 3,163 shares during the period. Finally, Yousif Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of ALLETE by 1.2% in the first quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 27,389 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,835,000 after acquiring an additional 324 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.55% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on ALE. Sidoti lowered ALLETE from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $64.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. 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 research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Guggenheim raised ALLETE from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $58.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $58.60.

ALLETE Price Performance

Shares of ALLETE stock opened at $58.33 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $58.17 and a 200 day moving average of $57.60. ALLETE, Inc. has a 12 month low of $49.29 and a 12 month high of $65.10. The firm has a market cap of $3.36 billion, a PE ratio of 13.57 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

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

ALLETE Increases Dividend

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

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.