Victory Capital Management Inc. Lowers Position in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

Victory Capital Management Inc. lowered its stake in shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) by 0.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,302,088 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 7,800 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. owned approximately 2.27% of ALLETE worth $79,636,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ALE. Allworth Financial LP boosted its holdings in ALLETE by 131.2% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 467 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 265 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its stake in shares of ALLETE by 85.6% in the 3rd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 566 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 261 shares in the last quarter. Spire Wealth Management grew its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 381.3% during the 3rd quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 900 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 713 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new stake in ALLETE during the 4th quarter worth approximately $77,000. Finally, Huntington National Bank increased its position in ALLETE by 18.8% during the 3rd quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 2,096 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $111,000 after purchasing an additional 332 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.55% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on ALE. Guggenheim raised shares of ALLETE from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $58.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Sidoti downgraded ALLETE from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $64.00 price target for the company. in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective 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 equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have given a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $58.60.

ALLETE Stock Performance

Shares of ALE stock opened at $64.28 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $58.67 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $58.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.95 and a beta of 0.75. ALLETE, Inc. has a 12 month low of $49.29 and a 12 month high of $65.86.

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

ALLETE Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be issued a $0.705 dividend. This represents a $2.82 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 14th. ALLETE’s dividend 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.