Alliant Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:LNT) Receives Average Rating of "Hold" from Analysts

Shares of Alliant Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:LNT - Get Free Report) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the ten ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have given a hold recommendation and four have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $63.95.

A number of analysts have issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group set a $71.00 price objective on shares of Alliant Energy and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Alliant Energy from $66.00 to $64.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Alliant Energy from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Barclays downgraded shares of Alliant Energy from an "equal weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $59.00 to $61.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Alliant Energy from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, March 21st.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of LNT. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alliant Energy by 9,113.1% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,187,345 shares of the company's stock valued at $247,640,000 after acquiring an additional 4,141,895 shares during the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. bought a new position in shares of Alliant Energy in the 1st quarter valued at $82,496,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alliant Energy by 6,869.6% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,114,027 shares of the company's stock valued at $71,688,000 after acquiring an additional 1,098,043 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alliant Energy by 98.7% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,084,562 shares of the company's stock valued at $69,792,000 after acquiring an additional 538,603 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Carnegie Investment Counsel bought a new position in shares of Alliant Energy in the 1st quarter valued at $34,210,000. Institutional investors own 79.90% of the company's stock.

Alliant Energy Stock Performance

Shares of LNT stock opened at $60.35 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $15.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.81, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.24 and a current ratio of 0.34. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $61.11 and a 200 day simple moving average of $60.94. Alliant Energy has a 52 week low of $50.53 and a 52 week high of $66.54.

Alliant Energy (NASDAQ:LNT - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.71 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. Alliant Energy had a net margin of 18.26% and a return on equity of 12.01%. Alliant Energy's revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.62 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Alliant Energy will post 3.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Alliant Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th were given a $0.5075 dividend. This represents a $2.03 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 30th. Alliant Energy's payout ratio is presently 70.00%.

Alliant Energy Company 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.

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