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

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 an increase from Alliant Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48.

Alliant Energy has increased its dividend by an average of 6.1% annually over the last three years and has increased 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. 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 Stock Performance

Alliant Energy stock opened at $60.55 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $60.21 and a 200-day moving average of $58.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.33, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.72. Alliant Energy has a 1 year low of $46.80 and a 1 year high of $64.19. 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.

Alliant Energy (NASDAQ:LNT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.05. Alliant Energy had a net margin of 16.66% and a return on equity of 10.56%. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.08 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.05 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Alliant Energy will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on LNT. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Alliant Energy from $66.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research 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. 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 research note on Friday, September 20th. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Alliant Energy from $52.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Finally, Scotiabank cut 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. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alliant Energy currently has a consensus 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.