Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC Purchases Shares of 17,051 ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC bought a new stake in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE - Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 17,051 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,063,000.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its stake in ALLETE by 139.4% during the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 699 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in ALLETE by 4,157.1% during the 1st 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 during the period. Hantz Financial Services Inc. acquired a new stake in ALLETE during the 2nd quarter worth $75,000. Clear Street Markets LLC acquired a new stake in ALLETE during the 4th quarter worth $92,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in ALLETE by 43.7% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,869 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $111,000 after purchasing an additional 568 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.55% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on ALE shares. Sidoti upgraded shares of ALLETE from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of ALLETE in a research note on Saturday, September 28th. They issued a "hold" rating for the company. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, ALLETE currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $62.00.

ALLETE Price Performance

NYSE:ALE traded up $0.01 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $64.26. 235,196 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 372,169. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 1.45. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $63.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $62.39. ALLETE, Inc. has a 1 year low of $50.29 and a 1 year high of $65.86. The company has a market cap of $3.71 billion, a PE ratio of 15.45 and a beta of 0.80.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.87 by ($0.30). The firm had revenue of $354.50 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $547.24 million. ALLETE had a return on equity of 7.07% and a net margin of 14.36%. The business's quarterly revenue was down 33.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.90 earnings per share.

ALLETE Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, August 15th were given a $0.7005 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.36%. ALLETE's dividend payout ratio is presently 67.79%.

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.