Topic: Growth Stocks

ALLIANT ENERGY CORP. $49 – New York symbol LNT

ALLIANT ENERGY CORP. $49 (New York symbol LNT; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 119.6 million; Market cap: $5.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.7; Dividend yield: 3.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.alliantenergy.com) sells electricity and natural gas to 1.4 million residential and business customers in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota.

Like Ameren (see left), Alliant benefited from colder- than-normal winter weather. The company earned $79.3 million, or $0.72 a share, in the first quarter of 2013, up 45.5% from $54.5 million, or $0.50 a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 12.3%, to $859.6 million from $765.7 million.

Recent rate hikes in Iowa will help offset lower rates in Wisconsin. That should push up Alliant’s earnings to $3.30 a share in 2013 from $3.05 in 2012. The stock trades at a reasonable 14.8 times that estimate. The $1.88 dividend yields 3.8%.

Alliant Energy is a buy.

Comments

Tell Us What YOU Think

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Please be respectful with your comments and help us keep this an area that everyone can enjoy. If you believe a comment is abusive or otherwise violates our Terms of Use, please click here to report it to the administrator.