Alliant Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:LNT) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Alliant Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:LNT) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eight have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $74.50.

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $75.00 price target on shares of Alliant Energy in a report on Sunday, February 22nd. Mizuho set a $73.00 target price on shares of Alliant Energy in a report on Monday, February 23rd. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $78.00 price target (up from $72.00) on shares of Alliant Energy in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alliant Energy in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, HSBC upgraded Alliant Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st.

Alliant Energy Price Performance

Alliant Energy stock opened at $71.34 on Friday. Alliant Energy has a one year low of $57.09 and a one year high of $72.65. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $67.88 and a 200-day moving average price of $66.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.49, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.65, a PEG ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 0.66.

Alliant Energy (NASDAQ:LNT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 20th. The company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.02. Alliant Energy had a return on equity of 11.51% and a net margin of 18.57%.The company had revenue of $1.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $673.11 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.70 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Alliant Energy will post 3.23 EPS for the current year.

Alliant Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 30th were issued a $0.535 dividend. This represents a $2.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 30th. This is an increase from Alliant Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.51. Alliant Energy’s payout ratio is 67.94%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Carnegie Investment Counsel boosted its holdings in shares of Alliant Energy by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel now owns 622,821 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,984,000 after purchasing an additional 24,482 shares in the last quarter. Liberty One Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alliant Energy by 91.7% during the 3rd quarter. Liberty One Investment Management LLC now owns 984,790 shares of the company’s stock valued at $66,389,000 after buying an additional 470,967 shares in the last quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. bought a new stake in Alliant Energy in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $4,015,000. AlphaQuest LLC purchased a new stake in Alliant Energy in the third quarter worth approximately $1,314,000. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd boosted its stake in Alliant Energy by 108.9% in the third quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 47,101 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,175,000 after buying an additional 24,549 shares in the last quarter. 79.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Alliant Energy

Alliant Energy Corporation (NASDAQ: LNT) is a publicly traded energy holding company headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, that provides regulated electric and natural gas utility services in the American Midwest. The company serves customers primarily in Wisconsin and Iowa through its regulated utility subsidiaries and operates as an integrated provider responsible for generation, transmission and distribution of energy to residential, commercial and industrial customers.

Alliant Energy’s core activities include operating and maintaining electric generation assets, managing the regional transmission and distribution network, and delivering natural gas service to its franchise territories.