DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale Purchases 183 Shares of Atmos Energy Co. (NYSE:ATO)

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its position in shares of Atmos Energy Co. (NYSE:ATO) by 0.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 47,427 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 183 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale’s holdings in Atmos Energy were worth $5,514,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ATO. Vest Financial LLC raised its holdings in shares of Atmos Energy by 33.3% in the 4th quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 247,048 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $28,633,000 after buying an additional 61,708 shares in the last quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Atmos Energy by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC now owns 21,198 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,246,000 after buying an additional 693 shares in the last quarter. Lido Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Atmos Energy by 29.6% in the 3rd quarter. Lido Advisors LLC now owns 19,601 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,076,000 after buying an additional 4,479 shares in the last quarter. Cambridge Trust Co. raised its holdings in shares of Atmos Energy by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Cambridge Trust Co. now owns 46,329 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,908,000 after buying an additional 253 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ raised its holdings in shares of Atmos Energy by 26.8% in the 3rd quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ now owns 189,184 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $20,040,000 after buying an additional 39,970 shares in the last quarter. 90.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Atmos Energy

In other Atmos Energy news, Director Kim R. Cocklin sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.46, for a total value of $1,746,900.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 186,339 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,701,039.94. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

Atmos Energy Trading Down 0.6 %

ATO stock opened at $114.38 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $114.89 and a 200 day moving average price of $113.28. Atmos Energy Co. has a fifty-two week low of $101.00 and a fifty-two week high of $125.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.52 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The utilities provider reported $2.08 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 net margin of 23.43% and a return on equity of 8.62%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.91 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Atmos Energy Co. will post 6.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Atmos Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 26th were given a $0.805 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 23rd. This represents a $3.22 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.82%. Atmos Energy’s payout ratio is 51.11%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ATO. Mizuho increased their target price on Atmos Energy from $131.00 to $133.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 14th. StockNews.com cut Atmos Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on Atmos Energy from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Atmos Energy has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $124.40.

Atmos Energy 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.