Pittenger & Anderson Inc. Raises Stock Position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Pittenger & Anderson Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 833.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,800 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 2,500 shares during the quarter. Pittenger & Anderson Inc.’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $113,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MO. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Altria Group by 11.3% during the 3rd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,934 shares of the company’s stock worth $125,000 after purchasing an additional 299 shares during the period. Strategic Blueprint LLC boosted its position in shares of Altria Group by 10.0% during the third quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC now owns 9,993 shares of the company’s stock valued at $420,000 after buying an additional 905 shares during the period. CX Institutional grew its stake in shares of Altria Group by 306.4% during the third quarter. CX Institutional now owns 67,227 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,827,000 after buying an additional 50,683 shares during the last quarter. Galvin Gaustad & Stein LLC bought a new position in shares of Altria Group during the third quarter valued at approximately $214,000. Finally, Czech National Bank raised its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 46.8% in the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 310,165 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,042,000 after buying an additional 98,852 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have commented on the company. StockNews.com downgraded Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, April 14th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price target on shares of Altria Group in a research note on Monday, March 25th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $36.10 to $36.50 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $46.90.

Altria Group Stock Performance

MO stock traded up $0.28 during trading on Friday, reaching $43.82. The company had a trading volume of 7,996,573 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,918,290. The company has a market cap of $75.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.65. Altria Group, Inc. has a twelve month low of $39.06 and a twelve month high of $48.04. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $42.12 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.46.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.15. The company had revenue of $4.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.71 billion. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 244.55% and a net margin of 33.21%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.18 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Altria Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 25th will be issued a $0.98 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 22nd. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.95%. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 85.78%.

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

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.