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Reasons to Add Alliant Energy (LNT) to Your Portfolio Now

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Alliant Energy Corporation’s (LNT - Free Report) regular investments to add clean power generation assets to its generation portfolio, the expansion of its customer base and strong liquidity make it a solid choice for investment in the utility space.

Let’s focus on the factors that make the Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stock a strong investment pick at the moment. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Growth Projections

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2022 and 2023 earnings per share has moved up 1.8% and 1.4%, respectively, in the past 60 days.

Regular Investments & Emission Reduction

Alliant Energy plans to invest substantially over the next four years to strengthen its electric and gas distribution network, as well as add natural gas and renewable assets to the generation portfolio. The company plans to fortify its electric and natural gas distribution systems, as well as make regular investments to strengthen infrastructure. Alliant Energy plans to invest $6.1 billion between 2022 and 2025.

LNT announced the goal of retiring all existing coal-fired generation units by 2040, with an objective of lowering emissions from the 2005 levels by 50% and 100% within 2030 and 2050, respectively. In total, Alliant Energy will replace 1.6 gigawatts of coal-fired generation with clean energy sources over the next few years.

Return on Equity & Dividend Yield

Return on Equity (ROE) indicates how efficiently Alliant Energy is utilizing shareholders’ funds to generate returns. At present, LNT’s ROE is 11.64%, higher than the industry average of 10.38%.

Currently, Alliant Energy has a dividend yield of 2.76% compared with the Zacks S&P 500 composite’s 1.69%.

Surprise History and Earnings Growth

Alliant Energy delivered an average earnings surprise of 5.8% in the last four quarters.

LNT’s long-term (three to five years) earnings growth is projected at 6.2%.

Price Performance

Over the past month, Alliant Energy’s shares have returned 2.2% against the industry’s 0.1% decline.

 

Zacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

 

Other Stocks to Consider

Some other top-ranked stocks in the same sector are Portland General Electric (POR - Free Report) , CenterPoint Energy (CNP - Free Report) and NiSource (NI - Free Report) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 at present.

Portland General Electric, CenterPoint Energy and NiSource delivered average earnings surprises of 3.74%, 3.89%, and 7.19%, respectively, in the last four quarters.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2021 earnings per share of Portland General Electric, CenterPoint Energy and NiSource has moved up 9.7%, 0.7%, and 0.1%, respectively, in the past 60 days.

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