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

ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 821,100 shares, a decrease of 10.8% from the October 15th total of 920,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 254,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.2 days.

Institutional Trading of ALLETE

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ALE. Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in ALLETE by 955.1% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 897,622 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $55,967,000 after acquiring an additional 812,548 shares in the last quarter. Alpine Associates Management Inc. purchased a new position in ALLETE during the second quarter valued at $21,985,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its stake in ALLETE by 6,668.6% during the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 239,204 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $14,941,000 after acquiring an additional 235,670 shares in the last quarter. Water Island Capital LLC purchased a new position in ALLETE during the second quarter valued at $11,583,000. Finally, Gabelli Funds LLC grew its stake in ALLETE by 59.1% during the second quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 441,564 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $27,532,000 after acquiring an additional 164,064 shares in the last quarter. 76.55% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ALE has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Sidoti upgraded shares of ALLETE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of ALLETE in a report on Friday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.00.

ALLETE Stock Performance

ALLETE stock traded down $0.05 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $64.40. 30,325 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 352,260. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.63 and a beta of 0.80. The business has a 50 day moving average of $64.25 and a two-hundred day moving average of $63.64. ALLETE has a 12 month low of $54.71 and a 12 month high of $65.86. 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 data on Wednesday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by ($0.21). The company had revenue of $407.20 million for the quarter. ALLETE had a net margin of 11.49% and a return on equity of 5.99%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.49 EPS.

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be given a $0.705 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. This is an increase from ALLETE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. This represents a $2.82 annualized dividend 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.