Wedge Capital Management L L P NC Acquires 2,175 Shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC boosted its holdings in shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) by 12.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 19,317 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,175 shares during the quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC’s holdings in ALLETE were worth $1,181,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Alps Advisors Inc. raised its stake in ALLETE by 41.4% during the 3rd quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 8,976 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $474,000 after purchasing an additional 2,626 shares during the period. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. grew its holdings in ALLETE by 214.3% during the 3rd quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 339,627 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $17,932,000 after buying an additional 231,582 shares in the last quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in ALLETE by 102.9% during the 3rd quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 42,446 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,241,000 after buying an additional 21,528 shares in the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd grew its holdings in ALLETE by 13.9% during the 3rd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 77,881 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,112,000 after buying an additional 9,478 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jump Financial LLC purchased a new position in ALLETE during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $2,218,000. Institutional investors own 76.55% of the company’s stock.

ALLETE Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE ALE opened at $59.57 on Friday. 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 business has a fifty day simple moving average of $58.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $57.95. The firm has a market cap of $3.43 billion, a PE ratio of 13.85 and a beta of 0.75. ALLETE, Inc. has a twelve month low of $49.29 and a twelve month high of $63.71.

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

ALLETE Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.705 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 14th. This represents a $2.82 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.73%. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 65.58%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.