AlphaMark Advisors LLC Buys New Position in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

AlphaMark Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm bought 4,979 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $297,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 36.0% during the 1st quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 19,063 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,137,000 after buying an additional 5,045 shares during the period. Congress Asset Management Co. MA raised its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. MA now owns 18,431 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,099,000 after buying an additional 233 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 43.7% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,869 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $111,000 after buying an additional 568 shares during the period. CWM LLC raised its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 22.9% during the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,407 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $203,000 after buying an additional 634 shares during the period. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd grew its stake in ALLETE by 148.2% during the 4th quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 17,041 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,043,000 after purchasing an additional 10,175 shares in the last quarter. 76.55% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

ALLETE Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ALE opened at $62.14 on Tuesday. ALLETE, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $49.29 and a fifty-two week high of $65.86. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $62.43 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $60.31. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 1.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The firm has a market cap of $3.58 billion, a PE ratio of 14.94 and a beta of 0.80.

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

ALLETE Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th were issued a $0.705 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 14th. This represents a $2.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.54%. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 67.79%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on ALE shares. Mizuho raised their price objective on ALLETE from $57.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. StockNews.com started coverage on ALLETE in a research note on Tuesday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, ALLETE currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.00.

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.