Inspire Advisors LLC Acquires 450 Shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

Inspire Advisors LLC grew its holdings in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 29,347 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 450 shares during the quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC’s holdings in ALLETE were worth $1,884,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Sidoti raised shares of ALLETE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of ALLETE in a report on Monday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.00.

ALLETE Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ALE traded up $0.04 during trading on Friday, reaching $64.46. The company had a trading volume of 60,713 shares, compared to its average volume of 363,872. The company has a fifty day moving average of $63.87 and a two-hundred day moving average of $62.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.49 and a beta of 0.80. ALLETE, Inc. has a 12 month low of $52.14 and a 12 month high of $65.86. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last released its 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). The business had revenue of $354.50 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $547.24 million. ALLETE had a net margin of 14.36% and a return on equity of 7.07%. ALLETE’s revenue for the quarter was down 33.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.90 EPS.

ALLETE Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were issued a $0.7005 dividend. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 67.79%.

ALLETE Company Profile

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.