Arizona State Retirement System Raises Stock Position in Alliant Energy Co. (NASDAQ:LNT)

Arizona State Retirement System raised its stake in Alliant Energy Co. (NASDAQ:LNT) by 1.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 74,466 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,013 shares during the quarter. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Alliant Energy were worth $4,404,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. RDA Financial Network increased its holdings in Alliant Energy by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. RDA Financial Network now owns 7,990 shares of the company’s stock valued at $473,000 after buying an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC increased its stake in shares of Alliant Energy by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 8,637 shares of the company’s stock worth $524,000 after purchasing an additional 189 shares in the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Alliant Energy by 8.2% during the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 2,509 shares of the company’s stock worth $148,000 after purchasing an additional 191 shares in the last quarter. Savant Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Alliant Energy by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 15,937 shares of the company’s stock worth $942,000 after purchasing an additional 237 shares in the last quarter. Finally, City State Bank increased its stake in shares of Alliant Energy by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. City State Bank now owns 71,547 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,231,000 after purchasing an additional 257 shares in the last quarter. 79.90% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LNT has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Alliant Energy from $60.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Guggenheim reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $57.00 price objective on shares of Alliant Energy in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Scotiabank cut shares of Alliant Energy from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $64.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.25.

Alliant Energy Stock Up 0.5 %

LNT stock opened at $62.49 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.23, a PEG ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.54. 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 Co. has a one year low of $47.23 and a one year high of $66.54. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $60.36 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $60.19.

Alliant Energy (NASDAQ:LNT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Alliant Energy Co. will post 3.23 EPS for the current year.

Alliant Energy Increases Dividend

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

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.