ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) Plans $0.71 Quarterly Dividend

ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 25th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be given a dividend of 0.705 per share by the utilities provider on Saturday, June 1st. This represents a $2.82 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.78%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 14th.

ALLETE has raised its dividend by an average of 3.1% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 14 years. ALLETE has a payout ratio of 68.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect ALLETE to earn $4.02 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.82 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 70.1%.

ALLETE Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of ALE stock traded down $0.55 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $59.02. 159,670 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 282,656. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 0.78. ALLETE has a 12-month low of $49.29 and a 12-month high of $63.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.80 and a beta of 0.75. The business's fifty day moving average is $58.31 and its two-hundred day moving average is $57.95.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.97 by ($0.08). The business had revenue of $402.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $425.21 million. ALLETE had a net margin of 13.15% and a return on equity of 7.31%. The company's revenue was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.90 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that ALLETE will post 3.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of ALLETE from $57.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Guggenheim raised shares of ALLETE from a "sell" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $58.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, Sidoti downgraded shares of ALLETE from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $64.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have issued a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $58.60.

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.