ALLETE, Inc. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.71 (NYSE:ALE)

ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 25th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.705 per share by the utilities provider on Saturday, June 1st. This represents a $2.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 14th.

ALLETE has raised its dividend payment by an average of 3.1% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 14 years. ALLETE has a payout ratio of 68.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect ALLETE to earn $4.02 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.82 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 70.1%.

ALLETE Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ALE opened at $59.57 on Friday. ALLETE has a fifty-two week low of $49.29 and a fifty-two week high of $63.71. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $58.31 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $57.95. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The firm has a market cap of $3.43 billion, a PE ratio of 13.85 and a beta of 0.75.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on ALE shares. Guggenheim upgraded ALLETE from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $58.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Sidoti lowered shares of ALLETE from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $64.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of ALLETE from $57.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have given a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $58.60.

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.