ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) Position Cut by Great Valley Advisor Group Inc.

Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. trimmed its holdings in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) by 19.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,081 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 999 shares during the quarter. Great Valley Advisor Group Inc.’s holdings in ALLETE were worth $262,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in ALE. Millennium Management LLC grew its holdings in ALLETE by 955.1% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 897,622 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $55,967,000 after buying an additional 812,548 shares in the last quarter. Alpine Associates Management Inc. bought a new position in ALLETE in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $21,985,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its holdings in ALLETE by 6,668.6% in the 2nd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 239,204 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $14,941,000 after buying an additional 235,670 shares in the last quarter. Water Island Capital LLC bought a new position in ALLETE in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $11,583,000. Finally, Gabelli Funds LLC grew its holdings in ALLETE by 59.1% in the 2nd quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 441,564 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $27,532,000 after buying an additional 164,064 shares in the last quarter. 76.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ALE has been the subject of a number of research reports. Sidoti raised ALLETE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on ALLETE in a research note on Saturday, November 23rd. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.00.

ALLETE Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ALE opened at $64.87 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $64.35 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $63.70. 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 firm has a market cap of $3.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.79 and a beta of 0.80. ALLETE, Inc. has a 1 year low of $54.90 and a 1 year high of $65.86.

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

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.705 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. This is a positive change from ALLETE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. This represents a $2.82 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.35%. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.