Atmos Energy Co. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.81 (NYSE:ATO)

Atmos Energy Co. (NYSE:ATO) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, May 8th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 28th will be given a dividend of 0.805 per share by the utilities provider on Monday, June 10th. This represents a $3.22 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.67%.

Atmos Energy has increased its dividend payment by an average of 8.8% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 40 consecutive years. Atmos Energy has a payout ratio of 45.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Atmos Energy to earn $7.03 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.22 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 45.8%.

Atmos Energy Stock Performance

Atmos Energy stock opened at $120.59 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $116.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $114.44. 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 has a 1-year low of $101.00 and a 1-year high of $125.28. The stock has a market cap of $18.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.66.

Atmos Energy (NYSE:ATO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $2.85 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.62 by $0.23. Atmos Energy had a net margin of 23.43% and a return on equity of 8.62%. The firm had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.54 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.48 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Atmos Energy will post 6.6 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on ATO shares. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Atmos Energy from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Atmos Energy in a report on Friday, April 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $124.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Atmos Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, April 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Atmos Energy presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $124.33.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Atmos Energy news, Director Kim R. Cocklin sold 15,000 shares of the 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 sale, the director now directly owns 186,339 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,701,039.94. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Atmos Energy Company Profile

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.