ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) Sets New 1-Year High at $65.86

ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $65.86 and last traded at $63.51, with a volume of 468932 shares. The stock had previously closed at $60.84.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have issued reports on ALE shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on ALLETE from $57.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Sidoti lowered shares of 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. Finally, Guggenheim raised shares of ALLETE from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $58.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have issued a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $58.60.

ALLETE Trading Up 5.6 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $58.67 and a 200-day simple moving average of $58.27. The firm has a market cap of $3.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.95 and a beta of 0.75.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) 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 firm had revenue of $402.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $425.21 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.90 earnings per share. ALLETE’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that ALLETE, Inc. will post 3.75 earnings per share for the current year.

ALLETE Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be given a $0.705 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 14th. This represents a $2.82 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.39%. ALLETE’s payout ratio is 65.58%.

Institutional Trading of ALLETE

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ALE. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,579,504 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $402,402,000 after purchasing an additional 176,709 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in ALLETE by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,254,365 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $66,230,000 after buying an additional 6,421 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in ALLETE by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 888,731 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $54,355,000 after acquiring an additional 24,690 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in ALLETE by 13.9% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 829,564 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $43,801,000 after acquiring an additional 101,229 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in ALLETE by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 716,941 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $43,848,000 after acquiring an additional 22,139 shares during the last quarter. 76.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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. 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.