Hantz Financial Services Inc. Takes Position in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

Hantz Financial Services Inc. bought a new stake in shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 1,197 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $75,000.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ALE. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of ALLETE by 0.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,615,496 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $394,548,000 after buying an additional 35,992 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in ALLETE by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 888,731 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $54,355,000 after purchasing an additional 24,690 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in ALLETE by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 716,941 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $43,848,000 after purchasing an additional 22,139 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. boosted its stake in shares of ALLETE by 2.7% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 308,300 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $18,387,000 after purchasing an additional 7,981 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 4.2% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 278,294 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $16,597,000 after purchasing an additional 11,219 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.55% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on ALE. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of ALLETE in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of ALLETE from $57.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $62.00.

ALLETE Stock Performance

NYSE:ALE opened at $63.55 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $3.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.28 and a beta of 0.80. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $63.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $61.42. ALLETE, Inc. has a twelve month low of $49.29 and a twelve month high of $65.86. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.87 by ($0.30). The company had revenue of $354.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $547.24 million. ALLETE had a return on equity of 7.07% and a net margin of 14.36%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 33.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.90 earnings per share.

ALLETE Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were issued a dividend of $0.7005 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.41%. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 67.79%.

ALLETE 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.