Atmos Energy Co. (NYSE:ATO) Announces $0.81 Quarterly Dividend

Atmos Energy Co. (NYSE:ATO) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, August 7th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, August 26th will be given a dividend of 0.805 per share by the utilities provider on Monday, September 9th. This represents a $3.22 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.51%.

Atmos Energy has raised its dividend by an average of 8.8% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 40 years. Atmos Energy has a payout ratio of 45.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Atmos Energy to earn $7.10 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.22 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 45.4%.

Atmos Energy Stock Performance

NYSE:ATO traded up $0.58 on Wednesday, hitting $128.10. The stock had a trading volume of 1,097,809 shares, compared to its average volume of 915,308. Atmos Energy has a 52-week low of $101.00 and a 52-week high of $132.24. The stock has a market cap of $19.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $119.30 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $116.85.

Atmos Energy (NYSE:ATO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $2.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.62 by $0.23. Atmos Energy had a net margin of 24.65% and a return on equity of 9.01%. The company had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.54 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.48 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Atmos Energy will post 6.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ATO. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Atmos Energy from $133.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 13th. Barclays boosted their price target on Atmos Energy from $121.00 to $129.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 14th. StockNews.com raised Atmos Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday. UBS Group started coverage on Atmos Energy in a research note on Friday, April 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $124.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Atmos Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $130.00 to $132.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 14th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $128.67.

Insider Activity at Atmos Energy

In other news, Director Diana J. Walters sold 400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total value of $47,200.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 3,551 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $419,018. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Atmos Energy

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.