Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Invests $1.04 Million in Atmos Energy Co. (NYSE:ATO)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in Atmos Energy Co. (NYSE:ATO) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 9,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,043,000.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in ATO. AE Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Atmos Energy by 21.7% in the 3rd quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,742 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $290,000 after purchasing an additional 489 shares during the last quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in Atmos Energy by 80.5% during the 3rd quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. now owns 296 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 132 shares during the last quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC grew its holdings in Atmos Energy by 36.6% during the 3rd quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 3,822 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $405,000 after acquiring an additional 1,025 shares during the last quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Atmos Energy by 22.6% during the 3rd quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $794,000 after acquiring an additional 1,383 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SS&H Financial Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Atmos Energy during the 3rd quarter worth about $622,000. Institutional investors own 90.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ATO has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Atmos Energy in a report on Friday, April 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $124.00 price objective on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Atmos Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Finally, Barclays upped 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 report on Thursday, March 14th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $124.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Kim R. Cocklin sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the director now directly owns 186,339 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,701,039.94. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Atmos Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ATO opened at $118.66 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $17.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.66. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $115.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $113.90. 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 Co. has a fifty-two week low of $101.00 and a fifty-two week high of $125.28.

Atmos Energy (NYSE:ATO) last announced 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 firm had revenue of $1.16 billion during 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 quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.91 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Atmos Energy Co. will post 6.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Atmos Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 11th. Investors of record on Monday, February 26th were paid a dividend of $0.805 per share. 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 2.71%. Atmos Energy’s payout ratio is 51.11%.

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.