Earnest Partners LLC Sells 10,319 Shares of Atmos Energy Corporation $ATO

Earnest Partners LLC lowered its holdings in Atmos Energy Corporation (NYSE:ATO) by 2.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 439,110 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 10,319 shares during the quarter. Earnest Partners LLC’s holdings in Atmos Energy were worth $74,978,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Capital International Investors increased its stake in shares of Atmos Energy by 3.4% in the third quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 10,965,840 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,872,162,000 after buying an additional 359,780 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in Atmos Energy by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,737,053 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $638,102,000 after buying an additional 84,786 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Atmos Energy by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,099,360 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $529,216,000 after acquiring an additional 17,022 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in Atmos Energy by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,949,497 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $332,877,000 after acquiring an additional 50,214 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Atmos Energy in the 2nd quarter valued at about $282,487,000. Institutional investors own 90.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Atmos Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 7th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Atmos Energy from $159.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Morgan Stanley set a $192.00 price objective on shares of Atmos Energy in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Zacks Research raised Atmos Energy to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on Atmos Energy from $163.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $175.67.

Atmos Energy Trading Up 1.0%

ATO opened at $188.65 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $175.09 and its two-hundred day moving average is $172.37. The firm has a market cap of $31.21 billion, a PE ratio of 24.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 0.74. Atmos Energy Corporation has a twelve month low of $141.59 and a twelve month high of $189.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.13.

Atmos Energy (NYSE:ATO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 3rd. The utilities provider reported $2.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.41 by $0.03. Atmos Energy had a net margin of 25.67% and a return on equity of 9.20%. The company had revenue of $1.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.21 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.23 EPS. Atmos Energy has set its FY 2026 guidance at 8.150-8.350 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Atmos Energy Corporation will post 7.18 EPS for the current year.

Atmos Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 9th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 23rd were paid a $1.00 dividend. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 23rd. Atmos Energy’s payout ratio is presently 51.95%.

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.