Altria Group (NYSE:MO) Stock Price Down 0.5%

Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)’s stock price fell 0.5% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $40.73 and last traded at $40.76. 1,651,923 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 86% from the average session volume of 11,569,462 shares. The stock had previously closed at $40.95.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Altria Group Stock Up 0.8 %

The company has a market cap of $70.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.99, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.65. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $41.84 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $41.43.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.17 by $0.01. Altria Group had a net margin of 33.21% and a negative return on equity of 244.55%. The company had revenue of $5.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.06 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.18 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict 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. Investors of record on Monday, March 25th will be issued a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 22nd. Altria Group’s payout ratio is 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MO. Sei Investments Co. boosted its holdings in Altria Group by 1.6% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 404,894 shares of the company’s stock worth $21,248,000 after purchasing an additional 6,324 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Altria Group by 5.2% during the first quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 18,647 shares of the company’s stock worth $974,000 after purchasing an additional 929 shares during the last quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P acquired a new position in Altria Group during the first quarter worth $25,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its holdings in Altria Group by 3.4% during the first quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,711,773 shares of the company’s stock worth $141,690,000 after purchasing an additional 89,334 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Western Trust Bank acquired a new position in Altria Group during the first quarter worth $498,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

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.