ALLETE, Inc. (ALE) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.71 on June 1st

ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 25th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be paid 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 of this dividend is Tuesday, May 14th.

ALLETE has increased its dividend payment by an average of 3.1% per year over the last three years and has raised 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. Equities 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 Price Performance

ALE stock opened at $59.04 on Friday. 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 one year low of $49.29 and a one year high of $63.71. The stock has a market cap of $3.40 billion, a PE ratio of 13.73 and a beta of 0.75. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $58.34 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $58.00.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by ($0.08). ALLETE had a return on equity of 7.31% and a net margin of 13.15%. The company had revenue of $402.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $425.21 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. ALLETE’s quarterly revenue was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that ALLETE will post 3.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Guggenheim raised shares of ALLETE from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $58.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of ALLETE from $57.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Sidoti lowered shares of ALLETE from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $64.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have given a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target 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.