ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) Short Interest Update

ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest during the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 821,100 shares, a drop of 10.8% from the October 15th total of 920,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 254,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.2 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ALLETE

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC bought a new stake in shares of ALLETE during the 3rd quarter valued at $38,000. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in ALLETE by 261.0% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,083 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $70,000 after acquiring an additional 783 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of ALLETE by 4,157.1% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,192 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $71,000 after acquiring an additional 1,164 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of ALLETE in the second quarter worth about $74,000. Finally, Hantz Financial Services Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of ALLETE during the second quarter worth about $75,000. 76.55% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

ALLETE Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ALE traded up $0.09 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $64.45. The company had a trading volume of 196,751 shares, compared to its average volume of 353,704. ALLETE has a 12-month low of $54.71 and a 12-month high of $65.86. The company has a fifty day moving average of $64.24 and a two-hundred day moving average of $63.61. The company has a market cap of $3.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.63 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by ($0.21). ALLETE had a return on equity of 5.99% and a net margin of 11.49%. The company had revenue of $407.20 million during the quarter. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.49 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis.

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.705 per share. This is a boost from ALLETE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $2.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.38%. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 90.38%.

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.