Van ECK Associates Corp Purchases 1,086 Shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) by 7.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 15,963 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,086 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in ALLETE were worth $1,026,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position 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 worth $394,548,000 after acquiring an additional 35,992 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in ALLETE by 5.8% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 964,193 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $60,118,000 after purchasing an additional 52,499 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in ALLETE by 955.1% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 897,622 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $55,967,000 after purchasing an additional 812,548 shares during the period. Gabelli Funds LLC grew its stake in ALLETE by 59.1% during the second quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 441,564 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $27,532,000 after purchasing an additional 164,064 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in ALLETE by 9.9% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 385,750 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $24,052,000 after purchasing an additional 34,810 shares during the period. 76.55% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Sidoti raised ALLETE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on ALLETE in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.00.

ALLETE Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ALE opened at $65.24 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $64.14 and a 200 day moving average of $63.47. The stock has a market cap of $3.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.91 and a beta of 0.80. ALLETE, Inc. has a 12 month low of $53.14 and a 12 month high of $65.86. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by ($0.21). The business had revenue of $407.20 million during the quarter. ALLETE had a return on equity of 5.99% and a net margin of 11.49%. The business’s revenue was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.49 EPS.

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.705 per share. This is a positive change from ALLETE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. This represents a $2.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio is currently 90.38%.

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.