Royal Fund Management LLC Trims Stake in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

Royal Fund Management LLC cut its position in shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) by 9.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,969 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 605 shares during the period. Royal Fund Management LLC’s holdings in ALLETE were worth $356,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in ALLETE by 263.7% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 395,962 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $20,907,000 after buying an additional 287,088 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in ALLETE by 112.0% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 504,362 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $30,847,000 after purchasing an additional 266,505 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,579,504 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $402,402,000 after buying an additional 176,709 shares during the period. HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of ALLETE during the 4th quarter worth $9,436,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in shares of ALLETE by 29.7% during the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 564,120 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $29,786,000 after buying an additional 129,104 shares in the last quarter. 76.55% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ALE has been the subject of a number of research reports. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of ALLETE from $57.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of ALLETE in a research note on Monday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have given a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, ALLETE currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $60.40.

ALLETE Stock Up 0.1 %

ALLETE stock traded up $0.08 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $62.99. The stock had a trading volume of 15,110 shares, compared to its average volume of 384,597. ALLETE, Inc. has a 52 week low of $49.29 and a 52 week high of $65.86. The company has a market cap of $3.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.12 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.66 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $61.96 and its 200-day moving average price is $60.25.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.09 by ($0.12). The firm had revenue of $403.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $581.26 million. ALLETE had a net margin of 13.94% and a return on equity of 7.21%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that ALLETE, Inc. will post 3.75 EPS for the current year.

ALLETE Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, June 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 15th were given a dividend of $0.705 per share. This represents a $2.82 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 14th. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio is currently 67.79%.

ALLETE Company Profile

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.