Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Purchases 36,438 Shares of Alliant Energy Co. (NASDAQ:LNT)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Alliant Energy Co. (NASDAQ:LNT) by 1.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,252,913 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 36,438 shares during the quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. owned about 0.88% of Alliant Energy worth $133,237,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Alliant Energy during the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its position in shares of Alliant Energy by 26.1% during the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 67,082 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,967,000 after purchasing an additional 13,871 shares in the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Alliant Energy by 19.2% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 3,185 shares of the company’s stock worth $189,000 after purchasing an additional 513 shares in the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Alliant Energy by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 8,532 shares of the company’s stock worth $505,000 after purchasing an additional 312 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Alliant Energy during the 4th quarter worth about $3,085,000. Institutional investors own 79.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on LNT. Guggenheim restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $57.00 target price on shares of Alliant Energy in a report on Monday, February 24th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Alliant Energy from $60.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Scotiabank lowered shares of Alliant Energy from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $64.00 to $67.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alliant Energy currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.25.

Alliant Energy Trading Up 0.5 %

NASDAQ:LNT opened at $62.49 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.86. The firm has a market cap of $16.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.54. Alliant Energy Co. has a 52 week low of $47.23 and a 52 week high of $66.54. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $60.30 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $60.14.

Alliant Energy (NASDAQ:LNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.68 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $976.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.14 billion. Alliant Energy had a net margin of 17.33% and a return on equity of 11.39%. On average, equities analysts expect that Alliant Energy Co. will post 3.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alliant Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st were paid a $0.5075 dividend. This is a positive change from Alliant Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 31st. This represents a $2.03 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.25%. Alliant Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 75.46%.

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.