HighTower Advisors LLC Sells 259 Shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

HighTower Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) by 4.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,456 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 259 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in ALLETE were worth $357,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ALE. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC bought a new stake in ALLETE during the third quarter valued at approximately $38,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 261.0% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,083 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $70,000 after acquiring an additional 783 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of ALLETE during the 2nd quarter worth $74,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. purchased a new position in ALLETE in the second quarter worth $75,000. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in ALLETE in the second quarter valued at $170,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.55% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ALE. Sidoti upgraded ALLETE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com started coverage on ALLETE in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.00.

ALLETE Trading Down 0.2 %

NYSE ALE opened at $64.50 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $3.73 billion, a PE ratio of 20.67 and a beta of 0.81. ALLETE, Inc. has a 1-year low of $55.86 and a 1-year high of $65.86. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $64.56 and a 200-day moving average of $63.91. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.99 by ($0.21). ALLETE had a net margin of 11.49% and a return on equity of 5.99%. The company had revenue of $407.20 million during the quarter. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.49 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis.

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th were issued a $0.705 dividend. This represents a $2.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. This is a positive change from ALLETE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 90.38%.

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.