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

Alliant Energy Co. (NASDAQ:LNT) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 17th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a dividend of 0.5075 per share on Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. This is a boost from Alliant Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48.

Alliant Energy has increased its dividend by an average of 6.0% 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 59.0% meaning 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 $2.03 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 62.7%.

Alliant Energy Price Performance

Shares of Alliant Energy stock opened at $58.87 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $60.06 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $59.09. Alliant Energy has a fifty-two week low of $46.80 and a fifty-two week high of $64.19. 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 company has a market cap of $15.11 billion, a PE ratio of 22.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.60.

Alliant Energy (NASDAQ:LNT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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%. 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 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Alliant Energy will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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