TacticScaleWhat Alliant Energy Does & How It Makes Money (LNT)
Updated October 2026 · reflects Alliant Energy's latest reported financials
Regulated electric and gas utility serving Iowa and Wisconsin. It earns regulated rates from retail customers for generating and delivering electricity and distributing natural gas through its IPL (Iowa) and WPL (Wisconsin) utilities, plus wholesale power sales.
How Alliant Energy makes money
It earns regulated rates from retail customers for generating and delivering electricity and distributing natural gas through its IPL (Iowa) and WPL (Wisconsin) utilities, plus wholesale power sales. Smaller revenue comes from freight, logistics and other non-utility businesses.
What Alliant Energy does
Alliant Energy is a utility holding company headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, operating through two regulated subsidiaries: Interstate Power and Light (IPL) in Iowa and Wisconsin Power and Light (WPL) in Wisconsin. Both generate and distribute electricity and distribute and transport natural gas to retail customers, serving sectors such as farming, agriculture, industrial manufacturing, chemicals, packaging and food. IPL also sells wholesale power in Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa and supplies steam to two customers in Cedar Rapids, while WPL sells wholesale power in Wisconsin. Beyond its core utilities, the company owns a short-line railroad in Iowa, a Mississippi River barge, rail and truck freight terminal in Illinois, a freight brokerage, a wind turbine blade recycling business and a rail-served warehouse in Iowa. It also holds interests in a natural gas-fired generating unit near Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, and a wind farm in Oklahoma. The company was formerly named Interstate Energy Corp. and took the Alliant Energy name in 1999.
Products & services
- Retail electricity service (IPL – Iowa)
- Retail electricity service (WPL – Wisconsin)
- Natural gas distribution and transportation
- Wholesale electricity to municipalities and rural cooperatives
- Steam generation for customers in Cedar Rapids
- Short-line rail, barge terminal and freight brokerage services
What is Alliant Energy worth?
On an owner-earnings DCF, Alliant Energy's most-likely value is about $12 versus a recent price near $66 (82% above fair value). But TacticScale only calls a stock undervalued when the price sits below its conservative no-growth floor (~$7) with a margin of safety — so the honest verdict here is “Stretched — richly priced.” Fair value earns its keep only at the extremes, not in the wide middle.
Today's $66 is above even the optimistic Bull case ($15) — the market expects faster, longer growth than modeled here. Expensive unless that extra growth actually shows up.
⚠ High leverage — net debt is 84.8× annual cash flow. Net debt is subtracted from this fair value, but refinancing at higher rates, principal timing, and share dilution aren’t modeled — the equity can be worth far less if cash flow weakens.
⚠ Capital-intensive — this business reinvests heavily, so free cash flow runs well below its earnings. Fair value here is built on free cash flow, which understates owner earnings for reinvestment-heavy companies — read it as conservative.
Analysis, not advice. Fair value is a margin-of-safety estimate from a deterministic owner-earnings DCF, not a price target or recommendation. See the full breakdown →
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