Ameriprise Financial Inc. Buys 2,120 Shares of Alliant Energy Co. (NASDAQ:LNT)

Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alliant Energy Co. (NASDAQ:LNT) by 0.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 260,970 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,120 shares during the quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. owned 0.10% of Alliant Energy worth $15,439,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV bought a new position in Alliant Energy in the 4th quarter worth about $1,399,000. Utah Retirement Systems increased its stake in Alliant Energy by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Utah Retirement Systems now owns 42,394 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,507,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Lido Advisors LLC increased its stake in Alliant Energy by 21.3% in the 4th quarter. Lido Advisors LLC now owns 22,355 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,322,000 after acquiring an additional 3,925 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Alliant Energy by 7.9% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,412,406 shares of the company’s stock worth $142,670,000 after acquiring an additional 177,129 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Optiver Holding B.V. increased its stake in Alliant Energy by 382.5% in the 4th quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 912 shares of the company’s stock worth $54,000 after acquiring an additional 723 shares during the last quarter. 79.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LNT has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Alliant Energy from $66.00 to $64.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Guggenheim reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $57.00 price objective on shares of Alliant Energy in a report on Monday, February 24th. StockNews.com upgraded Alliant Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday. UBS Group upped their price objective on Alliant Energy from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Barclays cut Alliant Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $59.00 to $61.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alliant Energy has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.55.

Alliant Energy Trading Up 1.2%

Shares of LNT stock opened at $62.48 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.05 billion, a PE ratio of 23.23, a P/E/G ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.58. Alliant Energy Co. has a 1-year low of $49.05 and a 1-year high of $66.54. The business has a 50-day moving average of $61.67 and a 200 day moving average of $60.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.33, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.72.

Alliant Energy (NASDAQ:LNT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.71 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. Alliant Energy had a return on equity of 11.39% and a net margin of 17.33%. Alliant Energy’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.62 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alliant Energy Co. will post 3.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Alliant Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 30th were issued a dividend of $0.5075 per share. This represents a $2.03 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 30th. Alliant Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 70.00%.

Alliant Energy Profile

Alliant Energy Corporation operates as a utility holding company that provides regulated electricity and natural gas services in the United States. It operates in three segments: Utility Electric Operations, Utility Gas Operations, and Utility Other. The company, through its subsidiary, Interstate Power and Light Company (IPL), primarily generates and distributes electricity, and distributes and transports natural gas to retail customers in Iowa; sells electricity to wholesale customers in Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa; and generates and distributes steam in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.