Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Has $1.27 Million Stock Holdings in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans reduced its position in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE - Free Report) by 29.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 19,741 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 8,352 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans' holdings in ALLETE were worth $1,267,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ALE. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its position in 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. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in ALLETE by 9.1% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 80,559 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $4,806,000 after purchasing an additional 6,695 shares during the last quarter. Comerica Bank grew its position in shares of ALLETE by 29.3% during the 1st quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 32,826 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,958,000 after buying an additional 7,446 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners raised its position in shares of ALLETE by 59.2% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 30,441 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,816,000 after purchasing an additional 11,321 shares during the period. Finally, CWM LLC boosted its position in ALLETE by 12.3% during the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,827 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $239,000 after purchasing an additional 420 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.55% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on ALE shares. Sidoti raised shares of 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 Sunday. They issued a "hold" rating on the stock. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, ALLETE currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $62.00.

ALLETE Stock Down 0.0 %

Shares of ALLETE stock traded down $0.03 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $64.85. The company's stock had a trading volume of 201,570 shares, compared to its average volume of 350,698. ALLETE, Inc. has a 1-year low of $55.60 and a 1-year high of $65.86. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.78 and a beta of 0.80. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $64.42 and a 200-day simple moving average of $63.74.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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). 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 quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.49 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year.

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th were paid a $0.705 dividend. This represents a $2.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.35%. This is an increase from ALLETE's previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. ALLETE's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.