Brinker Capital Investments LLC Reduces Stock Position in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

Brinker Capital Investments LLC lowered its holdings in shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE – Get Rating) by 1.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,944 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 306 shares during the quarter. Brinker Capital Investments LLC’s holdings in ALLETE were worth $798,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in ALLETE by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,541,217 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $371,150,000 after purchasing an additional 118,439 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in ALLETE by 7.1% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,352,001 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $138,251,000 after purchasing an additional 156,791 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its position in ALLETE by 4.9% during the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,712,790 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $100,677,000 after purchasing an additional 79,295 shares in the last quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. raised its position in ALLETE by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. now owns 1,199,491 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $70,506,000 after purchasing an additional 10,210 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its position in ALLETE by 61.6% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 759,218 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $50,852,000 after purchasing an additional 289,528 shares in the last quarter. 77.52% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on ALE. StockNews.com raised ALLETE from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 22nd. TheStreet raised ALLETE from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Friday, December 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on ALLETE from $60.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 14th. Mizuho boosted their price target on ALLETE from $50.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 9th. Finally, Bank of America raised ALLETE from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $53.00 to $66.00 in a research report on Monday, November 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, ALLETE currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.20.

ALLETE Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE:ALE opened at $64.19 on Monday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $65.02 and its 200 day moving average is $60.09. ALLETE, Inc. has a 1 year low of $47.77 and a 1 year high of $68.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 0.35.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE – Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.70 by ($0.11). ALLETE had a net margin of 12.92% and a return on equity of 6.23%. The business had revenue of $388.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $361.20 million. On average, research analysts predict that ALLETE, Inc. will post 3.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ALLETE Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 15th were given a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.05%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 14th. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio is currently 70.65%.

About ALLETE

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ALLETE, Inc engages in the provision of electric and natural gas utility services. It operates through the following business segments: Regulated Operations, ALLETE Clean Energy, and U.S. Water Services. The Regulated Operations segment includes regulated utilities, Minnesota Power, SWL&P, and investment in ATC, which regulates utilities that own and maintain electric transmission assets.