Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of natural gas producer Atlas Energy (NYSE: AHD) shot up 16% in intraday trading on heavy volume.

So what: Atlas Energy now refers, of course, to the "new" Atlas Energy, which used to be Atlas Pipeline Holdings but changed its name after the "old" Atlas Energy was acquired by Chevron (NYSE: CVX). And be careful not to confuse that with Atlas Pipeline Partners, which is a natural gas processing partnership of which Atlas Energy is a general partner and substantial shareholder. Still with me?

As for the stock's mad dash today, it was on the back of a whole smattering of positive events for the company. Yesterday, Morgan Stanley upgraded Atlas from "equal-weight" to "overweight" and raised its price target to $21 from $16. As a general partner of Lightfoot Capital Partners, the company will also be benefiting from the announced sale of Lightfoot-owned International Resource Partners to James River Coal.

Now what: Maybe more importantly, though, was the update call that management held today. The call generally was a pep rally for the new Atlas Energy and a review of exactly what business interests the company has. But even if management's positive tone wasn't enough to fire up investors, raising guidance rarely fails -- and the company did just that. For calendar year 2011, the company now sees $1.10 to $1.20 in pro forma distributable cash flow, versus previous guidance of $0.70 to $0.80. Management also said that it expects distributable cash flow to "increase substantially" in 2012.

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