StockNews.com Initiates Coverage on ALLETE (NYSE:ALE)

Equities researchers at StockNews.com began coverage on shares of ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) in a report released on Sunday. The brokerage set a “hold” rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Separately, Sidoti raised ALLETE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, ALLETE presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.00.

ALLETE Stock Down 0.1 %

ALE opened at $64.21 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 1.45. The company has a market capitalization of $3.71 billion, a PE ratio of 15.44 and a beta of 0.80. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $63.86 and its 200-day moving average is $62.45. ALLETE has a one year low of $51.31 and a one year high of $65.86.

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

Institutional Trading of ALLETE

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ALE. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in ALLETE in the 1st quarter worth about $854,000. Boston Partners grew its position in ALLETE by 59.2% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 30,441 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,816,000 after purchasing an additional 11,321 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in ALLETE by 167.1% during the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 34,723 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,071,000 after purchasing an additional 21,725 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. increased its stake in ALLETE by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 308,300 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $18,387,000 after buying an additional 7,981 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in ALLETE by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,615,496 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $394,548,000 after buying an additional 35,992 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.55% of the company’s stock.

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.