ALLIANT ENERGY CORP. $45 - New York symbol LNT

ALLIANT ENERGY CORP. $45 (New York symbol LNT; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 111.0 million; Market cap: $5.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; Dividend yield: 4.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.alliantenergy.com) sells electricity and natural gas to 1.4 million residential and business customers in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota.

In the three months ended March 31, 2012, Alliant’s earnings fell 27.4%, to $54.5 million, or $0.50 a share. A year earlier, it earned $75.1 million, or $0.68 a share. These figures exclude unusual items, such as extra taxes related to the planned sale of Alliant’s wind- and solar-power subsidiary. Revenue fell 12.7%, to $765.7 million from $877.2 million.

Like Ameren, Alliant saw lower demand for electricity and gas due to the warm winter. However, power sales to industrial customers rose 3.8%.

The company should earn $2.80 a share in 2012. The stock trades at a reasonable 16.1 times that estimate. As well, Alliant has raised its dividend each year for the past eight years. The current annual rate of $1.80 a share yields 4.0%.

Alliant Energy is a buy.

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