J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. Buys New Shares in Alliant Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:LNT)

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alliant Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:LNT - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 37,496 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,413,000.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Alliant Energy by 9,113.1% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Alliant Energy in the 1st quarter valued at about $82,496,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Alliant Energy by 6,869.6% in the first 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 period. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S acquired a new position in Alliant Energy in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,201,000. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in shares of Alliant Energy by 7.7% in the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,012,572 shares of the company's stock worth $414,724,000 after acquiring an additional 499,802 shares during the period. 79.90% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on LNT shares. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Alliant Energy from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $68.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, July 7th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Alliant Energy from $66.00 to $64.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. UBS Group reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $67.00 price target (up from $65.00) on shares of Alliant Energy in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Barclays lowered shares of Alliant Energy from an "equal weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and raised their price objective for the company from $59.00 to $61.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $71.00 price objective on shares of Alliant Energy and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $64.23.

Alliant Energy Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of LNT stock opened at $64.56 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a current ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $61.40 and its 200 day simple moving average is $61.23. Alliant Energy Corporation has a 1 year low of $54.61 and a 1 year high of $66.54.

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

Alliant Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 31st will be given a dividend of $0.5075 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 31st. This represents a $2.03 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.14%. Alliant Energy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.

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