Alliant Energy Co. (LNT) to Distribute Quarterly Dividend of $0.51 on February 18th

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 raised its dividend payment by an average of 6.1% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 21 consecutive years. Alliant Energy has a payout ratio of 55.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Stock Performance

NASDAQ LNT opened at $60.55 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $15.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.86. Alliant Energy has a 52-week low of $46.80 and a 52-week high of $64.19. The company has a fifty day moving average of $60.21 and a 200-day moving average of $58.62.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on LNT. Scotiabank cut Alliant Energy from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and increased their target price for the company from $64.00 to $67.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price 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. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Alliant Energy from $61.00 to $59.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Alliant Energy from $52.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Alliant Energy from $66.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.39.

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.