Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC Invests $38,000 in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC bought a new stake in shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 598 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $38,000.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Algert Global LLC increased its holdings in ALLETE by 73.3% in the 3rd quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 71,018 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,559,000 after acquiring an additional 30,030 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 1.7% in the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 27,080 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,738,000 after purchasing an additional 451 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. increased its holdings in shares of ALLETE by 28.3% in the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 129,635 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $8,321,000 after purchasing an additional 28,612 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in ALLETE by 1.0% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 766,343 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $49,192,000 after buying an additional 7,739 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in ALLETE by 88.5% during the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 9,763 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $627,000 after buying an additional 4,584 shares during the last quarter. 76.55% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on ALE. Sidoti upgraded ALLETE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of ALLETE in a research report on Saturday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.00.

ALLETE Price Performance

Shares of ALLETE stock opened at $64.93 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $3.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.81 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.45. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $64.31 and a 200-day moving average price of $63.67. ALLETE, Inc. has a one year low of $54.71 and a one year high of $65.86.

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

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.705 per share. This represents a $2.82 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.34%. This is an increase from ALLETE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.