ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) Shares Purchased by Cozad Asset Management Inc.

Cozad Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE - Free Report) by 33.6% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 33,982 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 8,543 shares during the quarter. Cozad Asset Management Inc. owned approximately 0.06% of ALLETE worth $2,181,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its position in ALLETE by 261.0% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,083 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $70,000 after purchasing an additional 783 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its position in ALLETE by 4,157.1% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,192 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $71,000 after purchasing an additional 1,164 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new stake in ALLETE during the second quarter worth $74,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. purchased a new stake in ALLETE during the second quarter worth $75,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd boosted its position in ALLETE by 1,118.1% during the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 2,156 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $129,000 after purchasing an additional 1,979 shares in the last quarter. 76.55% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on the company. Sidoti upgraded ALLETE from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on ALLETE in a report on Thursday. They issued a "hold" rating for the company. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $62.00.

ALLETE Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ALE traded down $0.07 during trading on Thursday, reaching $64.82. The company had a trading volume of 100,511 shares, compared to its average volume of 355,995. ALLETE, Inc. has a twelve month low of $53.14 and a twelve month high of $65.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.75 billion, a PE ratio of 20.81 and a beta of 0.80. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $64.05 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $63.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.99 by ($0.21). The business had revenue of $407.20 million during the quarter. ALLETE had a net margin of 11.49% and a return on equity of 5.99%. The company's revenue was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.49 EPS.

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th will be paid a $0.705 dividend. This is a positive change from ALLETE's previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. This represents a $2.82 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.35%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 15th. ALLETE's dividend payout ratio is presently 90.38%.

ALLETE 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.