Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Lowers Position in Atmos Energy Corporation $ATO

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Atmos Energy Corporation (NYSE:ATO) by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 418,989 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 5,945 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned 0.26% of Atmos Energy worth $71,542,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. MGO One Seven LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Atmos Energy during the 3rd quarter valued at $248,000. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI grew its position in Atmos Energy by 3.8% in the third quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 26,486 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,522,000 after acquiring an additional 966 shares in the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd increased its stake in Atmos Energy by 671.4% in the third quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 540 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $92,000 after acquiring an additional 470 shares during the last quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY raised its position in Atmos Energy by 2.1% during the third quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY now owns 54,633 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $9,329,000 after purchasing an additional 1,128 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kesler Norman & Wride LLC raised its position in Atmos Energy by 51.0% during the third quarter. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC now owns 2,311 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $395,000 after purchasing an additional 781 shares in the last quarter. 90.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Argus set a $172.00 price objective on Atmos Energy in a research report on Thursday, September 18th. Zacks Research raised Atmos Energy to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Atmos Energy in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Atmos Energy from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 2nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Atmos Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, December 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $174.33.

Atmos Energy Price Performance

Shares of Atmos Energy stock opened at $168.57 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.65. Atmos Energy Corporation has a one year low of $138.77 and a one year high of $180.65. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $170.93 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $167.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.77.

Atmos Energy (NYSE:ATO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 14th. The utilities provider reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter. Atmos Energy had a return on equity of 9.07% and a net margin of 25.49%.The firm had revenue of $737.48 million during the quarter. Analysts forecast that Atmos Energy Corporation will post 7.18 EPS for the current year.

Atmos Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 24th were issued a $1.00 dividend. This is a boost from Atmos Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.87. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 24th. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. Atmos Energy’s payout ratio is 53.40%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Sean Donohue sold 450 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.15, for a total transaction of $77,017.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $150,098.55. This represents a 33.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.43% of the company’s stock.

Atmos Energy Profile

Atmos Energy Corporation (NYSE: ATO) is a U.S.-based natural-gas utility that primarily focuses on the regulated distribution of natural gas. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, the company operates through local distribution systems to deliver natural gas to residential, commercial, industrial and electric generation customers. Atmos’s core activities include pipeline operations, gas distribution, system maintenance and reliability programs designed to ensure safe and continuous service to its customers.

The company’s services encompass gas delivery, system integrity and maintenance, storage and transmission connections, and customer-facing programs such as billing, conservation initiatives and energy-efficiency offerings.