Atmos Energy (NYSE:ATO) Downgraded by StockNews.com

Atmos Energy (NYSE:ATO) was downgraded by stock analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note issued on Thursday.

ATO has been the topic of several other research reports. Barclays lifted their price target on Atmos Energy from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Mizuho lifted their price target on Atmos Energy from $131.00 to $133.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and three have issued 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 $124.40.

Atmos Energy Stock Performance

ATO stock opened at $118.87 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $114.40 and its 200-day moving average is $113.13. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The company has a market cap of $17.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.66. Atmos Energy has a twelve month low of $101.00 and a twelve month high of $125.28.

Atmos Energy (NYSE:ATO) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $1.16 billion for 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 period in the previous year, the business posted $1.91 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Atmos Energy will post 6.59 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Kim R. Cocklin sold 15,000 shares of Atmos Energy stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.46, for a total transaction of $1,746,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 186,339 shares in the company, valued at $21,701,039.94. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Atmos Energy

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ATO. BlackRock Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Atmos Energy by 31.8% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 17,992,930 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,093,298,000 after acquiring an additional 4,343,701 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Atmos Energy during the fourth quarter worth approximately $137,757,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of 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. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Atmos Energy by 3.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,962,224 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,026,815,000 after acquiring an additional 547,260 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Atmos Energy by 24.0% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,756,708 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $329,399,000 after acquiring an additional 533,372 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.