Donaldson Capital Management LLC Decreases Stake in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Donaldson Capital Management LLC decreased its position in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 4.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,974 shares of the company’s stock after selling 268 shares during the period. Donaldson Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $241,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of MO. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Altria Group by 1.9% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 44,456,064 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,857,271,000 after acquiring an additional 840,559 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Altria Group by 1.9% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 35,856,051 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,596,257,000 after acquiring an additional 671,929 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in Altria Group by 5.1% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 24,517,169 shares of the company’s stock worth $990,002,000 after acquiring an additional 1,192,266 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Altria Group by 108,222.5% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 18,590,308 shares of the company’s stock worth $849,763,000 after buying an additional 18,573,146 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of Altria Group by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 17,105,285 shares of the company’s stock worth $781,883,000 after buying an additional 1,531,337 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 target price on shares of Altria Group in a research report on Monday, March 25th. UBS Group increased their price target on Altria Group from $36.10 to $36.50 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $46.90.

Altria Group Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of Altria Group stock opened at $40.74 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $69.98 billion, a PE ratio of 8.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.65. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $41.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.43. Altria Group, Inc. has a 12 month low of $39.06 and a 12 month high of $48.04.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $1.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 business had revenue of $5.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.06 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.18 earnings per share. Altria Group’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Altria Group announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, February 1st that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 1.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Altria Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Investors of record on Monday, March 25th will be given a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 22nd. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 85.78%.

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.