Alliant Energy (LNT) Competitors

Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET) and Alliant Energy (NASDAQ:LNT) are both large-cap energy companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, dividends, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, profitability, community ranking, institutional ownership and valuation.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor ET or LNT?

Energy Transfer received 380 more outperform votes than Alliant Energy when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 72.36% of users gave Energy Transfer an outperform vote while only 34.44% of users gave Alliant Energy an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Energy Transfer	Outperform Votes 411 72.36%	Underperform Votes 157 27.64%
Alliant Energy	Outperform Votes 31 34.44%	Underperform Votes 59 65.56%

Do analysts recommend ET or LNT?

Energy Transfer currently has a consensus price target of $22.64, indicating a potential upside of 24.59%. Alliant Energy has a consensus price target of $63.95, indicating a potential upside of 4.89%. Given Energy Transfer's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Energy Transfer is more favorable than Alliant Energy.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Energy Transfer	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	10 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.91
Alliant Energy	1 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.30

Is ET or LNT more profitable?

Alliant Energy has a net margin of 17.33% compared to Energy Transfer's net margin of 5.74%. Energy Transfer's return on equity of 11.56% beat Alliant Energy's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Energy Transfer	5.74%	11.56%	3.90%
Alliant Energy	17.33%	11.39%	3.55%

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of ET or LNT?

38.2% of Energy Transfer shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 79.9% of Alliant Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.3% of Energy Transfer shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Alliant Energy shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Is ET or LNT a better dividend stock?

Energy Transfer pays an annual dividend of $1.31 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.2%. Alliant Energy pays an annual dividend of $2.03 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Energy Transfer pays out 99.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Alliant Energy pays out 70.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Energy Transfer has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years and Alliant Energy has raised its dividend for 22 consecutive years.

Which has stronger valuation & earnings, ET or LNT?

Energy Transfer has higher revenue and earnings than Alliant Energy. Energy Transfer is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Alliant Energy, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Energy Transfer	$82.06B	0.76	$4.39B	$1.32	13.76
Alliant Energy	$4.08B	3.84	$703M	$2.90	21.02

Which has more volatility and risk, ET or LNT?

Energy Transfer has a beta of 0.78, indicating that its share price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Alliant Energy has a beta of 0.57, indicating that its share price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media prefer ET or LNT?

In the previous week, Energy Transfer had 12 more articles in the media than Alliant Energy. MarketBeat recorded 20 mentions for Energy Transfer and 8 mentions for Alliant Energy. Alliant Energy's average media sentiment score of 1.53 beat Energy Transfer's score of 0.94 indicating that Alliant Energy is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Energy Transfer	12 Very Positive mention(s)	5 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Alliant Energy	7 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Summary

Energy Transfer beats Alliant Energy on 13 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.