Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC Decreases Stake in Alliant Energy Co. (NASDAQ:LNT)

Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC lowered its position in shares of Alliant Energy Co. (NASDAQ:LNT) by 0.9% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 141,320 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,225 shares during the period. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC’s holdings in Alliant Energy were worth $7,123,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in Alliant Energy by 68.3% during the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 4,802,777 shares of the company’s stock valued at $246,382,000 after purchasing an additional 1,948,485 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in Alliant Energy by 103.5% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,286,941 shares of the company’s stock valued at $66,020,000 after purchasing an additional 654,460 shares in the last quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S grew its holdings in Alliant Energy by 14,057.8% during the 1st quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 577,072 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,084,000 after purchasing an additional 572,996 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Alliant Energy by 5.8% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 9,194,528 shares of the company’s stock valued at $471,679,000 after purchasing an additional 505,101 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its holdings in Alliant Energy by 224.2% during the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 468,855 shares of the company’s stock valued at $24,052,000 after purchasing an additional 324,252 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on LNT. Scotiabank lowered their price target on shares of Alliant Energy from $57.00 to $53.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Alliant Energy from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 6th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH reduced their price objective on shares of Alliant Energy from $48.50 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Alliant Energy from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Alliant Energy from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $51.38.

Alliant Energy Stock Performance

Shares of Alliant Energy stock traded up $0.79 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $52.79. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 130,377 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,740,788. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $50.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $49.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a current ratio of 0.56. Alliant Energy Co. has a one year low of $45.15 and a one year high of $56.26. The stock has a market cap of $13.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.56.

Alliant Energy (NASDAQ:LNT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 3rd. The company reported $0.62 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62. Alliant Energy had a net margin of 17.53% and a return on equity of 10.57%. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.01 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.65 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Alliant Energy Co. will post 3.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alliant Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 30th were paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 29th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.64%. 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.