Alliant Energy Co. (NASDAQ:LNT) Declares Dividend Increase – $0.51 Per Share

Alliant Energy Co. (NASDAQ:LNT) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 17th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.5075 per share on Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.35%. This is a positive change from Alliant Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48.

Alliant Energy has increased its dividend payment by an average of 6.1% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 21 consecutive years. Alliant Energy has a dividend payout ratio of 55.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Alliant Energy to earn $3.24 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.92 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 59.3%.

Alliant Energy Trading Up 0.8 %

LNT traded up $0.48 during trading on Friday, hitting $60.55. 1,697,668 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,417,035. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.33, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.72. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $60.15 and a 200 day moving average of $58.55. Alliant Energy has a 12-month low of $46.80 and a 12-month high of $64.19.

Alliant Energy (NASDAQ:LNT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.08 billion. Alliant Energy had a net margin of 16.66% and a return on equity of 10.56%. Alliant Energy’s quarterly revenue was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.05 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Alliant Energy will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LNT has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Scotiabank cut shares of Alliant Energy from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $64.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Alliant Energy from $64.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Alliant Energy from $65.00 to $61.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 4th. Mizuho upped their price objective on Alliant Energy from $52.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Alliant Energy in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $67.00 price objective on the stock. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.39.

About Alliant Energy

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.