Wall Street Zen Downgrades Atmos Energy (NYSE:ATO) to Sell

Atmos Energy (NYSE:ATO) was downgraded by Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note issued on Friday.

ATO has been the subject of several other reports. Truist Financial cut their target price on shares of Atmos Energy from $195.00 to $187.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 18th. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Atmos Energy from $193.00 to $196.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Atmos Energy from $167.00 to $184.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Atmos Energy from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price objective on Atmos Energy from $192.00 to $184.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Atmos Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $181.90.

Atmos Energy Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of NYSE:ATO opened at $169.98 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $178.90 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $176.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.88, a PEG ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 0.60. Atmos Energy has a 52-week low of $149.98 and a 52-week high of $192.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 1.00.

Atmos Energy (NYSE:ATO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The utilities provider reported $3.47 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.37 by $0.10. Atmos Energy had a net margin of 27.58% and a return on equity of 9.59%. The firm had revenue of $1.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.94 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.03 EPS. Atmos Energy has set its FY 2026 guidance at 8.400-8.500 EPS. Analysts expect that Atmos Energy will post 8.43 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Atmos Energy

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ATO. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Atmos Energy during the fourth quarter worth $331,426,000. Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in Atmos Energy by 94.9% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,652,267 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $562,851,000 after buying an additional 1,778,653 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its stake in Atmos Energy by 26,269.9% in the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,033,701 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $173,279,000 after buying an additional 1,029,781 shares during the period. Capital International Investors increased its stake in Atmos Energy by 8.5% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 11,893,826 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,993,968,000 after buying an additional 927,986 shares during the period. Finally, PFA Pension Forsikringsaktieselskab bought a new stake in Atmos Energy during the 4th quarter valued at about $107,729,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.17% of the company’s stock.

Atmos Energy Company 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.