ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) Upgraded to Strong-Buy by Sidoti

Sidoti upgraded shares of ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report released on Monday, Zacks.com reports.

Separately, StockNews.com initiated coverage on ALLETE in a research report on Saturday, September 28th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, ALLETE has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $62.00.

ALLETE Stock Performance

Shares of ALLETE stock opened at $64.26 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 1.45. ALLETE has a 1 year low of $50.29 and a 1 year high of $65.86. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $63.87 and its 200-day simple moving average is $62.39. The firm has a market cap of $3.71 billion, a PE ratio of 15.45 and a beta of 0.80.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.87 by ($0.30). ALLETE had a net margin of 14.36% and a return on equity of 7.07%. The firm had revenue of $354.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $547.24 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.90 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 33.6% compared to the same quarter last year.

ALLETE Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, August 15th were paid a dividend of $0.7005 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.36%. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 67.79%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ALLETE

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ALE. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 139.4% during the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 699 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 407 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of ALLETE by 4,157.1% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,192 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $71,000 after purchasing an additional 1,164 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new stake in ALLETE in the second quarter worth about $74,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. bought a new position in ALLETE in the 2nd quarter valued at about $75,000. Finally, Clear Street Markets LLC bought a new stake in shares of ALLETE during the 4th quarter worth about $92,000. 76.55% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.