Alliant’s green headstart gives it an edge

Article Excerpt

Shares of Ameren and Alliant Energy have moved up steadily for their investors in the past few months. That’s mainly because these high-quality utilities offer better yields than comparable fixed-income investments. For your new buying, we prefer Alliant, as it’s further ahead with its plan to phase out fossil fuels. That increases its appeal with institutional investors, who are increasingly focused on environmentally friendly stocks. ALLIANT ENERGY CORP. $61 is a buy. This utility (New York symbol LNT; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 250.3 million; Market cap: $15.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.4; Dividend yield: 2.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.alliantenergy.com) sells power and natural gas to 1.4 million clients in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. In the second quarter of 2021, Alliant’s revenue rose 7.1%, to $817 million from $763 million a year earlier. That was due to higher rates as well as warmer-than-usual weather, which increased demand for energy to power air conditioners. Earnings gained 5.6%, to $144 million from $134 million…