Alliant Energy Co. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.51 (NASDAQ:LNT)

Alliant Energy Co. (NASDAQ:LNT) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 2nd, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be given a dividend of 0.5075 per share on Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $2.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.15%.

Alliant Energy has raised its dividend by an average of 6.0% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 21 years. Alliant Energy has a dividend payout ratio of 59.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Alliant Energy to earn $3.45 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.03 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 58.8%.

Alliant Energy Stock Performance

NASDAQ:LNT opened at $64.49 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $61.98 and a 200-day moving average of $60.78. The firm has a market cap of $16.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.33. Alliant Energy has a twelve month low of $47.23 and a twelve month high of $66.54.

Alliant Energy (NASDAQ:LNT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $976.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.14 billion. Alliant Energy had a net margin of 17.33% and a return on equity of 11.39%. Analysts forecast that Alliant Energy will post 3.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on LNT. Guggenheim reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $57.00 price target on shares of Alliant Energy in a research note on Monday, February 24th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Alliant Energy from $60.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Scotiabank downgraded shares of Alliant Energy from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $64.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Alliant Energy from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.55.

Alliant Energy Company 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.