Gilliland Jeter Wealth Management LLC Invests $801,000 in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE)

Gilliland Jeter Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 13,096 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $801,000.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new stake in shares of ALLETE during the 4th quarter valued at about $77,000. New York State Common Retirement Fund grew its stake in shares of ALLETE by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 23,604 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,444,000 after purchasing an additional 295 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC grew its stake in shares of ALLETE by 12.7% during the 4th quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 19,317 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,181,000 after purchasing an additional 2,175 shares during the period. CWM LLC grew its stake in shares of ALLETE by 217.3% during the 4th quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,773 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $170,000 after purchasing an additional 1,899 shares during the period. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its stake in shares of ALLETE by 7.0% during the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 10,161 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $621,000 after purchasing an additional 662 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 research firms have issued reports on ALE. Sidoti downgraded ALLETE from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $64.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Guggenheim upgraded ALLETE from a "sell" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $58.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on ALLETE from $57.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have given a hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $58.60.

ALLETE Price Performance

ALE stock traded down $0.55 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $59.02. The company's stock had a trading volume of 159,670 shares, compared to its average volume of 239,322. ALLETE, Inc. has a 12 month low of $49.29 and a 12 month high of $63.71. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.73 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a 50 day moving average of $58.34 and a two-hundred day moving average of $58.06.

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

ALLETE Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be paid a $0.705 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 14th. This represents a $2.82 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.78%. ALLETE's payout ratio is 65.58%.

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.