ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) Receives Average Recommendation of “Reduce” from Brokerages

ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) has been assigned an average rating of “Reduce” from the five analysts that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation and four have assigned a hold recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $58.60.

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on ALE. Wells Fargo & Company increased 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. Sidoti lowered shares of ALLETE from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $64.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, Guggenheim upgraded shares of ALLETE from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $58.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, January 22nd.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of ALLETE in the 1st quarter worth $854,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its stake in shares of ALLETE by 18.4% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 32,734 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,952,000 after acquiring an additional 5,098 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its position in 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 during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in ALLETE by 4.2% in 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 last quarter. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System raised its position in ALLETE by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 16,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $984,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. 76.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

ALLETE Price Performance

Shares of ALE opened at $64.27 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $3.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.95 and a beta of 0.75. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $58.67 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $58.30. 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 has a 1 year low of $49.29 and a 1 year high of $65.86.

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

ALLETE Dividend Announcement

The business 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 dividend of $0.705 per share. 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 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.