Altria Group (NYSE:MO) Shares Up 0.7%

Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) rose 0.7% on Monday . The company traded as high as $42.58 and last traded at $42.39. Approximately 2,821,495 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 76% from the average daily volume of 11,747,912 shares. The stock had previously closed at $42.09.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on MO. UBS Group lifted their price target on Altria Group from $36.10 to $36.50 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. StockNews.com cut shares of Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, April 14th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 price target on shares of Altria Group in a research note on Monday, March 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Altria Group presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $46.90.

Altria Group Trading Up 0.7 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $73.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.65. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $42.00 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $41.44.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $1.18 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.17 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $5.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.06 billion. Altria Group had a net margin of 33.21% and a negative return on equity of 244.55%. The company’s revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.18 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Altria Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 25th will be given a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 22nd. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 85.78%.

Altria Group declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Altria Group

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FSC Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Altria Group by 21.3% in the fourth quarter. FSC Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,719 shares of the company’s stock valued at $110,000 after purchasing an additional 477 shares during the last quarter. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Altria Group during the fourth quarter worth about $39,000. KPP Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Altria Group in the third quarter valued at approximately $3,128,000. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Altria Group by 293.6% in the 3rd quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 55,546 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,336,000 after buying an additional 41,432 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in Altria Group by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,011,345 shares of the company’s stock worth $40,727,000 after buying an additional 4,789 shares during the period. 57.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Altria Group

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.