Seven Eight Capital LP Buys New Shares in Alliant Energy Co. (NASDAQ:LNT)

Seven Eight Capital LP purchased a new position in Alliant Energy Co. (NASDAQ:LNT) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 24,527 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,248,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Gilbert & Cook Inc. increased its stake in Alliant Energy by 5.6% in the 4th quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 6,097 shares of the company’s stock worth $313,000 after purchasing an additional 323 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Alliant Energy by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 899,638 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,152,000 after buying an additional 9,578 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Alliant Energy by 24.5% in the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 103,499 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,309,000 after acquiring an additional 20,371 shares in the last quarter. UBS Group AG raised its holdings in shares of Alliant Energy by 23.9% during the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 797,558 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,915,000 after acquiring an additional 153,963 shares during the period. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN boosted its stake in Alliant Energy by 13.5% in the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 596,395 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,595,000 after purchasing an additional 71,140 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.90% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on LNT shares. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Alliant Energy from $56.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Scotiabank increased their price objective on Alliant Energy from $58.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Barclays raised their price objective on Alliant Energy from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Alliant Energy from $58.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Alliant Energy from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $59.56.

Alliant Energy Price Performance

Shares of LNT opened at $59.75 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.31, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a current ratio of 0.65. The firm has a market cap of $15.32 billion, a PE ratio of 21.73, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.58. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $57.02 and its 200 day moving average price is $52.49. Alliant Energy Co. has a twelve month low of $45.15 and a twelve month high of $60.67.

Alliant Energy (NASDAQ:LNT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.64 by ($0.07). The business had revenue of $894.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $897.03 million. Alliant Energy had a net margin of 15.77% and a return on equity of 10.23%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.64 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Alliant Energy Co. will post 3.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alliant Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 31st were paid a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.21%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 31st. Alliant Energy’s payout ratio is 69.82%.

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.