Alliant Energy (LNT) Competitors

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

Is LNT or NI more profitable?

Alliant Energy has a net margin of 15.60% compared to NiSource's net margin of 11.72%. NiSource's return on equity of 11.14% beat Alliant Energy's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Alliant Energy	15.60%	10.74%	3.36%
NiSource	11.72%	11.14%	2.65%

Which has more volatility & risk, LNT or NI?

Alliant Energy has a beta of 0.56, meaning that its stock price is 44% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NiSource has a beta of 0.48, meaning that its stock price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in LNT or NI?

75.9% of Alliant Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.6% of NiSource shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of Alliant Energy shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of NiSource shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Is LNT or NI a better dividend stock?

Alliant Energy pays an annual dividend of $1.81 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. NiSource pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. Alliant Energy pays out 69.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. NiSource pays out 68.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. NiSource is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Do analysts recommend LNT or NI?

Alliant Energy presently has a consensus price target of $58.44, indicating a potential upside of 12.44%. NiSource has a consensus price target of $29.17, indicating a potential upside of 8.99%. Given Alliant Energy's higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Alliant Energy is more favorable than NiSource.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Alliant Energy	0 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.25
NiSource	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Which has higher earnings and valuation, LNT or NI?

NiSource has higher revenue and earnings than Alliant Energy. NiSource 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	$4.21 billion	3.10	$686 million	$2.61	19.92
NiSource	$5.94 billion	1.86	$804.10 million	$1.47	18.20

Does the MarketBeat Community favor LNT or NI?

NiSource received 394 more outperform votes than Alliant Energy when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 55.20% of users gave NiSource an outperform vote while only 32.61% of users gave Alliant Energy an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Alliant Energy	Outperform Votes 15 32.61%	Underperform Votes 31 67.39%
NiSource	Outperform Votes 409 55.20%	Underperform Votes 332 44.80%

Does the media favor LNT or NI?

In the previous week, Alliant Energy had 3 more articles in the media than NiSource. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for Alliant Energy and 4 mentions for NiSource. NiSource's average media sentiment score of 1.62 beat Alliant Energy's score of 1.11 indicating that NiSource is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Alliant Energy	3 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
NiSource	4 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Summary

NiSource beats Alliant Energy on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.