Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) Stake Reduced by Investment Advisory Group LLC

Investment Advisory Group LLC reduced its stake in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 5.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 7,201 shares of the company’s stock after selling 404 shares during the quarter. Investment Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $290,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MO. Sei Investments Co. boosted its position in Altria Group by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 404,894 shares of the company’s stock worth $21,248,000 after acquiring an additional 6,324 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in Altria Group by 5.2% during the 1st quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 18,647 shares of the company’s stock worth $974,000 after acquiring an additional 929 shares during the period. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P acquired a new position in Altria Group during the 1st quarter worth $25,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its position in Altria Group by 3.4% during the 1st quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,711,773 shares of the company’s stock worth $141,690,000 after acquiring an additional 89,334 shares during the period. Finally, First Western Trust Bank acquired a new position in Altria Group during the 1st quarter worth $498,000. 57.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MO. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price target on shares of Altria Group in a research report on Monday, March 25th. UBS Group upped their price objective 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 lowered Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $46.90.

Altria Group Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE MO traded up $0.06 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $41.01. 3,037,782 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,588,439. Altria Group, Inc. has a 1 year low of $39.06 and a 1 year high of $48.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $70.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.92, a PEG ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.65. The business has a 50 day moving average of $41.83 and a two-hundred day moving average of $41.44.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $1.18 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 the consensus estimate of $5.06 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.18 earnings per share. Altria Group’s revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.09 EPS for the current year.

Altria Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.56%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 22nd. Altria Group’s payout ratio is 85.78%.

Altria Group declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, February 1st that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase up to 1.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.