Dearborn Partners LLC Sells 7,393 Shares of Atmos Energy Co. (NYSE:ATO)

Dearborn Partners LLC reduced its position in shares of Atmos Energy Co. (NYSE:ATO) by 1.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 375,105 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 7,393 shares during the quarter. Atmos Energy comprises 1.6% of Dearborn Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 27th biggest position. Dearborn Partners LLC owned 0.25% of Atmos Energy worth $43,475,000 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 the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Atmos Energy by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,347,371 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,049,467,000 after acquiring an additional 538,578 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake 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. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Atmos Energy by 5.1% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,772,352 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,287,188,000 after acquiring an additional 527,261 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Atmos Energy by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,990,424 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $952,356,000 after acquiring an additional 452,247 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Atmos Energy by 3.4% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,090,125 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $346,460,000 after acquiring an additional 100,681 shares during the last quarter. 90.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ATO has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Mizuho upped their price target on Atmos Energy from $131.00 to $133.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 14th. StockNews.com downgraded Atmos Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on Atmos Energy from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Atmos Energy presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $124.40.

Insider Transactions at Atmos Energy

In other news, Director Kim R. Cocklin sold 15,000 shares of Atmos Energy stock in a transaction 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 owns 186,339 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,701,039.94. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

Atmos Energy Stock Performance

Atmos Energy stock traded up $0.23 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $116.56. 15,141 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 831,206. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $114.85 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $113.22. 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 cap of $17.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.47, 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The utilities provider reported $2.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.09 by ($0.01). Atmos Energy had a net margin of 23.43% and a return on equity of 8.62%. The business had revenue of $1.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.71 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.91 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Atmos Energy Co. will post 6.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Atmos Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 26th were issued a dividend of $0.805 per share. This represents a $3.22 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.76%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 23rd. Atmos Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.11%.

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.