Alliant Energy Co. (NASDAQ:LNT) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Alliant Energy Co. (NASDAQ:LNT – Get Rating) have received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the eleven brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $58.89.

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on LNT shares. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Alliant Energy to $58.00 in a research note on Monday, November 21st. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Alliant Energy from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 27th. Bank of America lowered shares of Alliant Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $57.00 to $56.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 7th. Mizuho downgraded shares of Alliant Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $64.00 to $55.00 in a report on Monday, January 9th. Finally, Guggenheim upgraded shares of Alliant Energy from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $46.00 to $52.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 21st.

Alliant Energy Price Performance

LNT stock opened at $51.96 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $13.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.03, a PEG ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.53. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $53.95 and its 200 day simple moving average is $53.94. The company has a quick ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22. Alliant Energy has a 12-month low of $47.19 and a 12-month high of $65.37.

Alliant Energy (NASDAQ:LNT – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 24th. The company reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $1.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $875.67 million. Alliant Energy had a net margin of 16.32% and a return on equity of 11.31%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.35 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Alliant Energy will post 2.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alliant Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, January 31st were given a $0.4525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, January 30th. This represents a $1.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.48%. This is a boost from Alliant Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Alliant Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 66.30%.

Institutional Trading of Alliant Energy

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new position in shares of Alliant Energy during the third quarter worth approximately $60,670,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Alliant Energy by 23.5% in the third quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 5,957,092 shares of the company’s stock valued at $315,666,000 after purchasing an additional 1,134,995 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in Alliant Energy by 8.1% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,692,321 shares of the company’s stock worth $855,496,000 after acquiring an additional 1,021,148 shares during the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. boosted its position in Alliant Energy by 35.9% during the third quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 3,202,821 shares of the company’s stock worth $169,717,000 after acquiring an additional 846,660 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ExodusPoint Capital Management LP raised its stake in Alliant Energy by 99.0% during the fourth quarter. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP now owns 1,585,601 shares of the company’s stock worth $87,541,000 after purchasing an additional 788,828 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.89% of the company’s stock.

Alliant Energy Company Profile

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Alliant Energy Corp. is a regulated investor-owned public utility holding company that engages in the provision of regulated electricity and natural gas service to natural gas customers in the Midwest through its two public utility subsidiaries. It operates through following segments: utility electric operations, utility gas operations, and utility other.