ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) Given Average Rating of “Reduce” by Brokerages

ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Reduce” from the five ratings firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation and four have given a hold recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $58.60.

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Guggenheim raised ALLETE from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $58.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price 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, Sidoti cut ALLETE from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $64.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ALLETE

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ALE. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of ALLETE during the 1st quarter valued at about $854,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in ALLETE by 18.4% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 32,734 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,952,000 after buying an additional 5,098 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lifted its position in shares of ALLETE by 18.5% during the 1st quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 13,031 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $777,000 after buying an additional 2,035 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in ALLETE by 4.2% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 278,294 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $16,597,000 after acquiring an additional 11,219 shares during the period. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System boosted its position in shares of ALLETE by 2.5% in the first quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 16,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $984,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the period. 76.55% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

ALLETE Trading Up 5.6 %

Shares of ALE stock opened at $64.27 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.95 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. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $58.67 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $58.30. ALLETE has a 52-week low of $49.29 and a 52-week high of $65.86.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last issued its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $402.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $425.21 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.90 earnings per share. ALLETE’s quarterly revenue was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that ALLETE will post 3.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ALLETE Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.705 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 14th. This represents a $2.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.39%. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio is currently 65.58%.

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.