ProShare Advisors LLC Has $7.83 Million Stock Holdings in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

ProShare Advisors LLC cut its stake in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) by 13.0% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 125,597 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 18,840 shares during the quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC’s holdings in ALLETE were worth $7,831,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in ALLETE by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,615,496 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $394,548,000 after acquiring an additional 35,992 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in ALLETE by 5.8% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 964,193 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $60,118,000 after acquiring an additional 52,499 shares in the last quarter. Alpine Associates Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of ALLETE in the 2nd quarter valued at $21,985,000. Sei Investments Co. increased its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 7,981 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of ALLETE by 4.2% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 278,294 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $16,597,000 after purchasing an additional 11,219 shares during the last quarter. 76.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com began coverage on ALLETE in a research note on Friday, September 20th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $62.00.

ALLETE Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of ALE opened at $63.86 on Wednesday. ALLETE, Inc. has a 52-week low of $49.29 and a 52-week high of $65.86. The business’s fifty day moving average is $63.85 and its 200-day moving average is $62.15. 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 firm has a market cap of $3.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.35 and a beta of 0.80.

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

ALLETE Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, August 15th were given a dividend of $0.7005 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.39%. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio is currently 67.79%.

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.