Morgan Stanley Cuts Atmos Energy (NYSE:ATO) Price Target to $195.00

Atmos Energy (NYSE:ATO) had its price target trimmed by Morgan Stanley from $197.00 to $195.00 in a report issued on Tuesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has an equal weight rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on ATO. Truist Financial initiated coverage on Atmos Energy in a report on Tuesday. They set a “hold” rating and a $195.00 price target on the stock. Citigroup upped their price target on Atmos Energy from $163.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Atmos Energy from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Atmos Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, March 7th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Atmos Energy from $167.00 to $184.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $181.11.

Atmos Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ATO opened at $187.99 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $184.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $176.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 1.13 and a quick ratio of 1.02. Atmos Energy has a 1-year low of $149.98 and a 1-year high of $192.51. The company has a market cap of $31.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.69.

Atmos Energy (NYSE:ATO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 3rd. The utilities provider reported $2.44 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.41 by $0.03. Atmos Energy had a return on equity of 9.20% and a net margin of 25.67%.The company had revenue of $1.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.21 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.23 EPS. Atmos Energy has set its FY 2026 guidance at 8.150-8.350 EPS. Analysts forecast that Atmos Energy will post 8.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Atmos Energy Announces Dividend

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Atmos Energy by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,032,554 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,525,687,000 after acquiring an additional 276,485 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in shares of Atmos Energy by 8.5% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 11,893,826 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,993,968,000 after acquiring an additional 927,986 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Atmos Energy by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,786,358 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,808,117,000 after purchasing an additional 155,836 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Atmos Energy by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,214,985 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $703,824,000 after purchasing an additional 78,438 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in shares of Atmos Energy by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,737,053 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $638,102,000 after purchasing an additional 84,786 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.17% of the company’s stock.

About Atmos Energy

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.