Atmos Energy (NYSE:ATO) Rating Increased to Hold at StockNews.com

Atmos Energy (NYSE:ATO) was upgraded by investment analysts at StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on ATO. UBS Group started coverage on shares of Atmos Energy in a report on Friday, April 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $124.00 price target for the company. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Atmos Energy from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $124.33.

Atmos Energy Stock Performance

Shares of ATO opened at $117.20 on Friday. Atmos Energy has a one year low of $101.00 and a one year high of $125.28. The company has a 50-day moving average of $115.10 and a two-hundred day moving average of $113.61. The stock has a market cap of $17.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.60, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 1.25.

Atmos Energy (NYSE:ATO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The utilities provider reported $2.08 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.09 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.71 billion. Atmos Energy had a return on equity of 8.62% and a net margin of 23.43%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.91 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Atmos Energy will post 6.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Atmos Energy

In other news, Director Kim R. Cocklin sold 15,000 shares of Atmos Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.46, for a total value of $1,746,900.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 186,339 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,701,039.94. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Atmos Energy

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Atmos Energy by 2.9% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,347,371 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,049,467,000 after purchasing an additional 538,578 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in Atmos Energy by 7.2% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 13,649,229 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,533,627,000 after acquiring an additional 912,138 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in Atmos Energy by 5.1% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,772,352 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,287,188,000 after acquiring an additional 527,261 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Atmos Energy by 11.6% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,032,032 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,162,713,000 after acquiring an additional 1,041,608 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Atmos Energy by 3.4% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,090,125 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $346,460,000 after acquiring an additional 100,681 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.17% of the company’s stock.

About Atmos Energy

Atmos Energy Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the regulated natural gas distribution, and pipeline and storage businesses in the United States. It operates through two segments, Distribution, and Pipeline and Storage. The Distribution segment is involved in the regulated natural gas distribution and related sales operations in eight states.