Altria Group (NYSE:MO) Stock Price Up 0.9%

Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) rose 0.9% on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $43.59 and last traded at $43.49. Approximately 1,944,805 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 83% from the average daily volume of 11,721,659 shares. The stock had previously closed at $43.12.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on MO. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on shares of Altria Group in a research report on Monday. UBS Group restated a “sell” rating and set a $36.10 price objective on shares of Altria Group in a research report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $46.82.

Altria Group Stock Down 0.1 %

The business has a 50-day moving average price of $41.40 and a 200-day moving average price of $41.54. The company has a market capitalization of $76.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.65.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $1.18 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.17 by $0.01. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 244.55% and a net margin of 33.21%. The firm had revenue of $5.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.06 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.18 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.08 EPS for the current year.

Altria Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 25th will be paid a dividend of $0.98 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 22nd. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.99%. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 85.78%.

Altria Group announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, February 1st that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 1.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Altria Group

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MO. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P acquired a new position in shares of Altria Group in the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd bought a new stake in Altria Group during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Nemes Rush Group LLC boosted its position in Altria Group by 103.2% in the 3rd quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 636 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 323 shares during the last quarter. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in Altria Group in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Finally, Hobbs Group Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Altria Group in the 4th quarter worth $27,000. Institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Altria Group Company Profile

Altria Group, Inc, through its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells smokeable and oral tobacco products in the United States. The company offers cigarettes primarily under the Marlboro brand; large cigars and pipe tobacco under the Black & Mild brand; moist smokeless tobacco and snus products under the Copenhagen, Skoal, Red Seal, and Husky brands; oral nicotine pouches under the on! brand; and e-vapor products under the NJOY ACE brand.