Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd Buys Shares of 5,069 Alliant Energy Co. (NASDAQ:LNT)

Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd purchased a new stake in Alliant Energy Co. (NASDAQ:LNT) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 5,069 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $300,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Alliant Energy by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 32,663,708 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,931,732,000 after purchasing an additional 226,275 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in shares of Alliant Energy by 7.7% in the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,012,572 shares of the company’s stock worth $414,724,000 after buying an additional 499,802 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Alliant Energy by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,695,767 shares of the company’s stock worth $395,017,000 after buying an additional 102,601 shares during the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its stake in shares of Alliant Energy by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 4,076,660 shares of the company’s stock worth $241,094,000 after acquiring an additional 72,748 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Alliant Energy by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,252,913 shares of the company’s stock valued at $133,237,000 after acquiring an additional 36,438 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.90% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LNT has been the subject of several analyst reports. Guggenheim reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $57.00 price objective on shares of Alliant Energy in a report on Monday, February 24th. UBS Group raised their price target on Alliant Energy from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Scotiabank downgraded shares of Alliant Energy from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $64.00 to $67.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price 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. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alliant Energy currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.55.

Alliant Energy Stock Down 2.5 %

LNT stock opened at $59.81 on Tuesday. 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 firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $62.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $60.82. Alliant Energy Co. has a 12 month low of $47.23 and a 12 month high of $66.54. The company has a market capitalization of $15.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.52.

Alliant Energy (NASDAQ:LNT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.68 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $976.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.14 billion. Alliant Energy had a return on equity of 11.39% and a net margin of 17.33%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Alliant Energy Co. will post 3.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Alliant Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.5075 per share. This represents a $2.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 30th. Alliant Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 75.46%.

Alliant Energy 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.