Alliant Energy (LNT) Competitors

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

Do analysts rate LNT or ET?

Alliant Energy presently has a consensus price target of $63.95, indicating a potential upside of 3.38%. Energy Transfer has a consensus price target of $22.64, indicating a potential upside of 27.42%. Given Energy Transfer's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Energy Transfer is more favorable than Alliant Energy.

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

Is LNT or ET a better dividend stock?

Alliant Energy pays an annual dividend of $2.03 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Energy Transfer pays an annual dividend of $1.31 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.4%. Alliant Energy pays out 70.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. 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 has raised its dividend for 22 consecutive years and Energy Transfer has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years.

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

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

Is LNT or ET 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
Alliant Energy	17.33%	11.39%	3.55%
Energy Transfer	5.74%	11.56%	3.90%

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer LNT or ET?

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

Does the media prefer LNT or ET?

In the previous week, Energy Transfer had 22 more articles in the media than Alliant Energy. MarketBeat recorded 39 mentions for Energy Transfer and 17 mentions for Alliant Energy. Alliant Energy's average media sentiment score of 1.51 beat Energy Transfer's score of 1.23 indicating that Alliant Energy is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Alliant Energy	12 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive
Energy Transfer	25 Very Positive mention(s)	9 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has preferable valuation & earnings, LNT or ET?

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
Alliant Energy	$4.08B	3.90	$703M	$2.90	21.33
Energy Transfer	$82.06B	0.74	$4.39B	$1.32	13.46

Which has more risk & volatility, LNT or ET?

Alliant Energy has a beta of 0.58, suggesting that its share price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Energy Transfer has a beta of 0.77, suggesting that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

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