I'll research LNT (Alliant Energy) before writing the preview. Let me gather recent filings, transcripts, guidance, and news.Let me read the most recent earnings materials (2026Q1) and the prior-year Q2 for comparison.Let me pull the year-ago Q2 (2025Q2) results for the comparison base, and recent stock price data.I have enough to write a well-grounded preview. Let me compile a couple of quick calculations on the stock performance.Here is the earnings preview.
Report date: Thursday, July 30, 2026 (post-close) · Call: 2026 Q2 Earnings Call Recent price (7/29/26): ~$71.96 · Prior-year Q2 ongoing EPS: $0.68
This is likely to be a "check the box, count the megawatts" quarter. The actual Q2 EPS number matters less than (1) whether management reaffirms the $3.36–$3.46 2026 guide, and (2) any incremental signal on new data-center ESAs and generation needs ahead of the real catalyst — the Q3/EEI capital-plan and long-term EPS refresh. LNT has become a data-center growth story wearing a regulated-utility chassis, and the market is treating it that way.
The reported number is a low-drama event. Q2 is a shoulder season for a Midwest utility, and LNT's earnings are heavily back-half weighted. For context: - Q1 2026 ongoing EPS was $0.82 (GAAP $0.87), which management flagged as ~25% of the full-year midpoint — essentially on plan despite mild weather that clipped ~$0.04/share. - The year-ago Q2 2025 came in at $0.68 ongoing (up from $0.57 in Q2 2024), driven by new IPL/WPL rates and favorable temperatures.
What to watch instead: 1. Guidance reaffirmation of the 2026 range of $3.36–$3.46. Anything other than a clean reaffirm would be a surprise. 2. New ESA announcements. Management has committed to disclosing signed electric service agreements each quarter. In Q1 they signed a ~370 MW Iowa deal, bringing total contracted data-center demand to ~3.4 GW across five executed agreements. The question for Q2: did another deal land, and did any of the "2–4 GW of future large-load opportunities" mature? 3. Any teaser on the Q3 resource-plan refresh (see Section 4).
This is the whole story right now. Key facts entering the print: - 5 executed data-center ESAs ≈ 3.4 GW contracted, with 3 projects under construction. Management frames this as >60% growth over current peak demand. - Anchor project is QTS in Cedar Rapids — a ~$10B development billed as the largest capital investment in Iowa history — plus a second QTS project in the Madison (WPL) area and a Meta data center in Beaver Dam, WI. - A separate ~2–4 GW pipeline of "mature" opportunities (management's stated bar: ~85% close probability, land control, active negotiations, transmission studies done/underway) that is not yet in the capital plan.
The "Alliant Advantage" thesis: recent ESAs are capacity-only, so the required build is primarily batteries + simple-cycle gas peakers (fast to market, deferrable investment in the steam/energy side), leveraging Iowa's wind-rich grid. Management stresses this tightly aligns capex with contracted revenue and, critically, that large-load customers fund their own infrastructure — the affordability/"win-win-win" message designed to preempt the anti-data-center backlash seen in other jurisdictions.
Watch item — Wisconsin risk: on the Q1 call management acknowledged local "rhetoric" and moratorium noise (spillover from PJM) and is awaiting a Wisconsin PSC decision on the Beaver Dam/Meta individual customer rate. Any update on Wisconsin permitting sentiment or that docket would be relevant.
Entering Q2, the active pipeline includes: - A newly filed 720 MW natural gas combustion turbine docket in Iowa. - A separately contracted up-to-1.1 GW CT tied to the 370 MW ESA, targeted for a 2031 in-service date. - Approved ~1 GW of new Iowa wind (advanced ratemaking, blended ROE ~9.8%) and Wisconsin's 153 MW Bent Tree North wind project. - Five active Wisconsin dockets (LNG storage, wind, Riverside capacity uprate, Meta rate).
Regulatory backdrop is a feature, not a bug: LNT has no active base-rate reviews planned in 2026, and Iowa's base-rate moratorium keeps retail electric base rates flat through at least the end of the decade while the utility still earns its authorized return via tax credits and margins on new generation. This is the low-risk regulatory construct that lets LNT grow into data-center load without contentious rate cases.
Management has explicitly pointed to the Q3 call / EEI (early November) as the moment for: - A refreshed Iowa resource plan incorporating any load beyond the ~3 GW already in-plan, plus updated MISO capacity-accreditation assumptions. - An updated multi-year capex plan. - An updated EPS base and growth trajectory.
That framing matters for how you read Q2: expect management to defer specifics ("stay tuned for EEI") on capex sizing, dollar-per-kW costs (confidentiality), and any tightening of the EPS range. On Q1, Shar Pourreza pushed on whether improving visibility could justify a more definable EPS range — that's the bull-case question hanging over the name.
Growth math to keep in mind: LNT reaffirmed a 7%+ CAGR for 2027–2029, off the 2025 actual base — a step up from its long-standing 5–7% framing, and it sits near the top of the utility peer group.
Don't overweight the Q2 EPS print — it's a seasonally small, on-plan quarter. The tape will trade on (1) guidance reaffirmation, (2) new/expanded data-center ESAs and the 2–4 GW pipeline, and (3) any preview of the Q3/EEI capex and long-term EPS reset. The structural setup — top-of-peer 7%+ growth, ~3.4 GW of contracted large load, a supportive Iowa no-rate-case construct, and a strengthening balance sheet — remains intact; the debate is simply how much of that is already in a stock that has outrun the sector.
Sources: LNT 2026 Q1 earnings release and call, 2025 Q2 earnings call, and Finnhub price data. Note: I did not have a published Street consensus estimate for Q2 2026 in my source set — the figures above are company-reported actuals and guidance, not consensus.