8,006 Shares in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) Bought by IFM Investors Pty Ltd

IFM Investors Pty Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 8,006 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $477,000.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of ALE. Alps Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 41.4% during the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 8,976 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $474,000 after buying an additional 2,626 shares during the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. boosted its position in ALLETE by 214.3% during the 3rd quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 339,627 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $17,932,000 after acquiring an additional 231,582 shares during the period. Gotham Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of ALLETE by 102.9% in the third quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 42,446 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,241,000 after purchasing an additional 21,528 shares in the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd increased its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 13.9% during the third quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 77,881 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,112,000 after purchasing an additional 9,478 shares during the period. Finally, Jump Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of ALLETE during the third quarter valued at about $2,218,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.55% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ALE. Sidoti lowered shares of ALLETE from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $64.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Guggenheim upgraded shares of ALLETE from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $58.00 price objective for the company in a report 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 report on Wednesday, February 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $58.60.

ALLETE Price Performance

NYSE ALE traded down $0.55 on Friday, reaching $59.02. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 159,670 shares, compared to its average volume of 239,322. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $58.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $58.06. The stock has a market cap of $3.40 billion, a PE ratio of 13.73 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 1.24. ALLETE, Inc. has a twelve month low of $49.29 and a twelve month high of $63.71.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last released its 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). The business had revenue of $402.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $425.21 million. ALLETE had a net margin of 13.15% and a return on equity of 7.31%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that ALLETE, Inc. will post 3.75 EPS for the current year.

ALLETE Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.705 per share. This represents a $2.82 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 14th. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.