Loomis Sayles & Co. L P Decreases Holdings in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

Loomis Sayles & Co. L P lowered its stake in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE - Free Report) by 6.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 146,189 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 9,353 shares during the quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P owned 0.25% of ALLETE worth $9,384,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in ALLETE by 5.8% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 964,193 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $60,118,000 after purchasing an additional 52,499 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in shares of ALLETE by 955.1% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 897,622 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $55,967,000 after buying an additional 812,548 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in ALLETE by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 766,343 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $49,192,000 after buying an additional 7,739 shares in the last quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC increased its position in ALLETE by 59.1% in the 2nd quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 441,564 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $27,532,000 after buying an additional 164,064 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alpine Associates Management Inc. raised its stake in ALLETE by 12.9% during the 3rd quarter. Alpine Associates Management Inc. now owns 398,047 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $25,551,000 after buying an additional 45,447 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.55% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Sidoti upgraded ALLETE from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, ALLETE presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $62.00.

ALLETE Stock Up 0.0 %

ALLETE stock traded up $0.01 during trading on Thursday, hitting $64.88. 233,579 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 352,268. The company has a market capitalization of $3.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.79 and a beta of 0.80. The business's 50 day moving average is $64.38 and its 200 day moving average is $63.71. ALLETE, Inc. has a 52 week low of $54.90 and a 52 week high of $65.86. 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 announced 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). ALLETE had a net margin of 11.49% and a return on equity of 5.99%. The firm had revenue of $407.20 million during the quarter. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.49 EPS. ALLETE's revenue was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year.

ALLETE Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be issued a $0.705 dividend. 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 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.