Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Buys Shares of 16,100 ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new stake in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 16,100 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $985,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of ALLETE by 263.7% during the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 395,962 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $20,907,000 after buying an additional 287,088 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of ALLETE by 112.0% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 504,362 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $30,847,000 after buying an additional 266,505 shares in the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. grew its position in shares of ALLETE by 214.3% during the third quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 339,627 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $17,932,000 after buying an additional 231,582 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of ALLETE by 2.1% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,402,795 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $338,068,000 after buying an additional 130,113 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in shares of ALLETE by 29.7% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 564,120 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $29,786,000 after buying an additional 129,104 shares in the last quarter. 76.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

ALLETE Price Performance

ALE stock opened at $59.96 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $58.26 and a 200 day moving average price of $57.93. The stock has a market cap of $3.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.94 and a beta of 0.75. ALLETE, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $49.29 and a fifty-two week high of $63.85. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 13.15% and a return on equity of 7.31%. The firm had revenue of $402.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $425.21 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. ALLETE’s quarterly revenue was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that ALLETE, Inc. will post 3.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 15th were paid a $0.705 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 14th. This represents a $2.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.70%. This is a boost from ALLETE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. ALLETE’s payout ratio is currently 65.58%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on ALE shares. Sidoti downgraded ALLETE from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $64.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Guggenheim upgraded ALLETE from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $58.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have given a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $58.60.

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.