Diversified utilities · head to head

CMS vs LNT

CMS ENERGY CORP and ALLIANT ENERGY CORP, side by side on the measures that account for debt and cash — each built from filed accounts.

01

Side by side

The two diverge most on free cash flow margin: −1.7% for CMS against −7.2% for LNT. Whether that gap is justified is a judgement this page does not make.

CMS ENERGY CORP compared with ALLIANT ENERGY CORP
MeasureCMSLNTSector median
EV / EBITDA*13.3×15.3×12.9×
EV / Sales*4.9×6.6×5.6×
Net debt / EBITDA6.2×5.7×5.6×
Return on capital6.0%5.6%6.0%
Operating margin20.8%23.5%23.0%
Free cash flow margin−1.7%−7.2%−6.8%

Green marks the reading conventionally read as cheaper or stronger on that row — a direction, not a recommendation, and the two companies frequently win different rows. * Price-based multiples are a snapshot taken 2026-09-09; the rest come from filed accounts. A dash means the measure could not be computed — each company page says why.

02

The full picture

This page compares two companies on ratios. Neither ratio table shows what it would cost to buy either business, how that cost is built, or which filing each term came from — those are on the company pages.