Mutual Advisors LLC Raises Position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Mutual Advisors LLC lifted its position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 130,118 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 2,786 shares during the period. Mutual Advisors LLC’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $6,498,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MO. CWM LLC lifted its stake in Altria Group by 15.3% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 305,704 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,603,000 after acquiring an additional 40,574 shares during the period. Albion Financial Group UT raised its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 49.1% during the first quarter. Albion Financial Group UT now owns 2,767 shares of the company’s stock valued at $121,000 after purchasing an additional 911 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in Altria Group by 1.6% during the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,027,886 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,960,000 after purchasing an additional 16,541 shares during the period. Regal Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Altria Group by 4.2% in the second quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC now owns 251,933 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,476,000 after purchasing an additional 10,079 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its position in Altria Group by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 1,456,308 shares of the company’s stock worth $74,330,000 after purchasing an additional 32,318 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on MO shares. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Altria Group from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Bank of America lowered their target price on Altria Group from $57.00 to $53.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Altria Group from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. StockNews.com cut shares of Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $44.50 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $48.20.

Altria Group Stock Down 0.6 %

NYSE MO opened at $49.96 on Wednesday. Altria Group, Inc. has a 52 week low of $39.25 and a 52 week high of $54.95. The company has a market capitalization of $85.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.65. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $51.37 and its 200-day moving average price is $48.23.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported $1.31 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $6.21 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.39 billion. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 232.55% and a net margin of 42.25%. Altria Group’s revenue was up 14.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.31 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.11 EPS for the current year.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th were given a dividend of $1.02 per share. This represents a $4.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.17%. This is an increase from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 85.36%.

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.