ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) Sees Unusually-High Trading Volume

ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) shares saw strong trading volume on Monday . 614,899 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 109% from the previous session’s volume of 293,597 shares.The stock last traded at $63.53 and had previously closed at $64.27.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Guggenheim upgraded shares of ALLETE from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $58.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of ALLETE from $57.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Sidoti downgraded shares of ALLETE from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $64.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $58.60.

ALLETE Trading Down 0.6 %

The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The company’s fifty day moving average is $58.94 and its 200-day moving average is $58.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.67 and a beta of 0.75.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by ($0.08). ALLETE had a net margin of 13.15% and a return on equity of 7.31%. The company had revenue of $402.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $425.21 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. ALLETE’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that ALLETE, Inc. will post 3.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ALLETE Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be paid a $0.705 dividend. This represents a $2.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.50%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 14th. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio is 65.58%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ALLETE

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of ALLETE by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,579,504 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $402,402,000 after purchasing an additional 176,709 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of ALLETE by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,254,365 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $66,230,000 after purchasing an additional 6,421 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of ALLETE by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 888,731 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $54,355,000 after purchasing an additional 24,690 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of ALLETE by 13.9% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 829,564 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $43,801,000 after purchasing an additional 101,229 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of ALLETE by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 716,941 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $43,848,000 after purchasing an additional 22,139 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.