Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. Sells 14,271 Shares of Alliant Energy Co. (NASDAQ:LNT)

Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Alliant Energy Co. (NASDAQ:LNT – Get Rating) by 18.7% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 61,889 shares of the company’s stock after selling 14,271 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Alliant Energy were worth $3,417,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LNT. Point72 Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Alliant Energy by 67.2% in the 3rd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 225,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,923,000 after purchasing an additional 90,400 shares during the last quarter. Balentine LLC bought a new position in shares of Alliant Energy in the 4th quarter valued at about $450,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Alliant Energy by 5.8% in the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 29,617 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,635,000 after purchasing an additional 1,620 shares during the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its stake in shares of Alliant Energy by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 237,082 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,089,000 after purchasing an additional 4,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Profund Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alliant Energy by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 12,527 shares of the company’s stock valued at $664,000 after purchasing an additional 340 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.89% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Alliant Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $58.00 to $61.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 19th. Guggenheim upgraded shares of Alliant Energy from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from $46.00 to $52.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 21st. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Alliant Energy in a research report on Thursday. They issued a “sell” rating on the stock. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Alliant Energy from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $58.67.

Alliant Energy Stock Performance

Shares of LNT stock opened at $52.61 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a current ratio of 0.62. The company has a market capitalization of $13.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 0.55. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $54.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $53.55. Alliant Energy Co. has a 52 week low of $47.19 and a 52 week high of $64.62.

Alliant Energy (NASDAQ:LNT – Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Friday, May 5th. The company reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.73 by ($0.08). The company had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.17 billion. Alliant Energy had a return on equity of 10.74% and a net margin of 15.60%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.77 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Alliant Energy Co. will post 2.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alliant Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 28th were paid a dividend of $0.4525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 27th. This represents a $1.81 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.44%. Alliant Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 69.35%.

About Alliant Energy

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Alliant Energy Corp. is a regulated investor-owned public utility holding company, which engages in the provision of regulated electricity and natural gas service to natural gas customers in the Midwest through its two public utility subsidiaries. It operates through following segments: Electric Utility, Gas Utility, Other Utility, and Non-Utility and Other.