Energy Income Partners LLC Trims Stock Holdings in Allete, Inc. $ALE

Energy Income Partners LLC lowered its position in shares of Allete, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) by 30.4% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 77,452 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 33,907 shares during the quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC’s holdings in Allete were worth $4,962,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Allete in the first quarter worth about $29,913,000. AQR Arbitrage LLC increased its holdings in Allete by 29.1% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Arbitrage LLC now owns 1,527,923 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $97,695,000 after buying an additional 344,241 shares during the period. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd increased its holdings in Allete by 43.2% in the 2nd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 924,076 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $59,206,000 after buying an additional 278,716 shares during the period. Credit Industriel ET Commercial purchased a new position in Allete during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $10,182,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its position in Allete by 38.3% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 519,639 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $33,293,000 after buying an additional 143,941 shares during the last quarter. 76.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Allete Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ALE opened at $67.90 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 1.17 and a quick ratio of 0.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.82 and a beta of 0.83. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $67.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $65.81. Allete, Inc. has a 12 month low of $62.38 and a 12 month high of $67.99.

Allete (NYSE:ALE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by ($0.34). The firm had revenue of $375.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $434.90 million. Allete had a return on equity of 5.08% and a net margin of 11.04%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on ALE shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Allete in a report on Monday. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Allete from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, November 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy”.

Allete Company 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.