New Mexico Educational Retirement Board Raises Holdings in Atmos Energy Co. (NYSE:ATO)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Oct 3rd, 2023

New Mexico Educational Retirement Board grew its position in shares of Atmos Energy Co. (NYSE:ATO – Free Report) by 7.7% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the period. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board’s holdings in Atmos Energy were worth $814,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ATO. Perpetual Ltd bought a new position in shares of Atmos Energy in the 1st quarter valued at about $127,941,000. Zimmer Partners LP bought a new position in shares of Atmos Energy in the 1st quarter valued at about $104,567,000. BlackRock Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Atmos Energy by 7.2% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 13,649,229 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,533,627,000 after acquiring an additional 912,138 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Atmos Energy by 3.3% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,962,224 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,026,815,000 after acquiring an additional 547,260 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Atmos Energy by 24.0% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,756,708 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $329,399,000 after purchasing an additional 533,372 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.98% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on ATO. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Atmos Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $132.00 to $128.00 in a research note on Monday, August 28th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Atmos Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 30th. Barclays began coverage on shares of Atmos Energy in a research note on Wednesday, August 23rd. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $122.00 price target for the company. Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of Atmos Energy from $135.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Atmos Energy from $122.00 to $124.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Atmos Energy currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $125.25.

Check Out Our Latest Report on Atmos Energy

Atmos Energy Price Performance

NYSE ATO opened at $102.81 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $115.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $115.69. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. Atmos Energy Co. has a 12-month low of $97.71 and a 12-month high of $125.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.60, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.64.

Atmos Energy (NYSE:ATO – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The utilities provider reported $0.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.97 by ($0.03). Atmos Energy had a return on equity of 8.38% and a net margin of 19.02%. The firm had revenue of $662.73 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $959.54 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.92 earnings per share. Atmos Energy’s revenue for the quarter was down 18.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Atmos Energy Co. will post 6.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Atmos Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 5th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 21st were issued a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.88%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 18th. Atmos Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 50.68%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Kim R. Cocklin sold 12,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $1,468,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 212,472 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,952,711.68. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

Atmos Energy Profile

(Free Report)

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.