ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) Given Consensus Rating of “Hold” by Brokerages

ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE – Get Rating) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the eight research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $64.17.

ALE has been the subject of several analyst reports. Bank of America downgraded ALLETE from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $63.00 in a research note on Friday, May 5th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on ALLETE from $67.00 to $65.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 30th. Sidoti raised shares of ALLETE from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $74.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 6th. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of ALLETE from $66.00 to $64.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 24th. Finally, Guggenheim cut shares of ALLETE from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $53.00 to $54.00 in a report on Monday, January 23rd.

ALLETE Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ALE opened at $62.88 on Thursday. ALLETE has a twelve month low of $47.77 and a twelve month high of $67.45. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $63.19 and its 200-day moving average is $62.69. The company has a quick ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.77, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.74.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 3rd. The utilities provider reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.19 by ($0.17). The business had revenue of $564.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $376.00 million. ALLETE had a return on equity of 5.40% and a net margin of 10.34%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 47.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.24 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that ALLETE will post 3.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ALLETE Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 1st. Investors of record on Monday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.678 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 12th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.31%. ALLETE’s payout ratio is currently 85.22%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ALLETE

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in ALLETE by 2.5% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,142,694 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $307,442,000 after buying an additional 148,353 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in ALLETE by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,406,122 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $120,426,000 after acquiring an additional 54,121 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in ALLETE by 29.3% in the 1st quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,150,903 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $138,454,000 after acquiring an additional 487,520 shares during the period. ATLAS Infrastructure Partners UK Ltd. lifted its holdings in ALLETE by 10.2% during the third quarter. ATLAS Infrastructure Partners UK Ltd. now owns 1,954,376 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $106,151,000 after purchasing an additional 181,626 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Macquarie Group Ltd. boosted its position in ALLETE by 12.1% during the fourth quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. now owns 1,326,880 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $85,597,000 after purchasing an additional 143,677 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 77.52% of the company’s stock.

ALLETE Company Profile

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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 Corporate and Other. 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.