New York, May 29, 2026, 14:03 (EDT)
Alliant Energy stock slipped 0.9% to $71.50 early Friday afternoon, adding to Thursday’s steep losses as utilities underperformed. The Utilities Select Sector SPDR ETF lost 0.7%. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF ticked up 0.2%.
Alliant is now part of the market’s data-center power story. Investors are watching if more electricity use from artificial intelligence and cloud work will boost regulated utilities enough to balance out higher construction and financing costs.
The stock fell 2.14% to $72.17 on Thursday, MarketWatch reported, putting it 4.74% under its $75.76 52-week high from May 1. Volume came in at 2.2 million shares, matching the 50-day average.
The moves weren’t limited to Alliant. On Friday, regional peers slid, with WEC Energy Group dropping around 0.5% and Xcel Energy slipping 0.2%. Alliant’s loss was sharper. These stocks are closer comps than national giants since they’re also regulated utilities focused on the Midwest.
Alliant, headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, runs regulated electric and natural gas services for roughly 1.01 million electric customers and 435,000 gas users through Interstate Power and Light and Wisconsin Power and Light. In regulated markets, state utility commissions mostly set prices and returns—these aren’t left just to market demand.
Core bull thesis still holds, at least on the numbers. On April 30, Alliant said it had signed a roughly 370-megawatt electric service deal in Iowa, pushing total contracted data-center demand to about 3.4 gigawatts of committed load. The company kept its target for ongoing 2026 earnings per share at $3.36 to $3.46. Ongoing EPS is a non-GAAP metric that cuts out some items management doesn’t see as part of normal operations.
Alliant CEO Lisa Barton said the company was “off to a strong start” and pointed to “continued momentum in data center growth” in the first-quarter statement. GAAP EPS was $0.87, up from $0.83 last year. Ongoing EPS edged down to $0.82 from $0.83. SEC
Timing now matters. Alliant, in its May investor deck, put 2026 capex at around $3 billion, most of it hitting late in the year. The company also pointed to data-center load gains beginning in the second half. Investors are left looking for projects to start boosting earnings, not just showing up in plans.
Wall Street isn’t all in the same camp on Alliant. Scotiabank’s Andrew Weisel kept his “Sector Perform” call and bumped his target to $74 earlier this month. Jefferies also stuck to its Buy rating, nudging its target up to $85 from $84. Barchart
The risks are straightforward. Higher financing costs, potential common equity dilution from new stock, possible construction holdups, mild weather and harder rate calls could all weigh on earnings. Alliant’s outlook counts on normal weather, on finishing capital projects, and on its utilities getting their approved returns.
The stock isn’t acting like a classic income utility right now. Instead, it’s acting as a test on investor appetite for the data-center power trade. On Friday, investors wanted it cheaper.
