X Square Capital LLC Acquires 891 Shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

X Square Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 5.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 18,797 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 891 shares during the quarter. X Square Capital LLC’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $959,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in shares of Altria Group by 1.6% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 12,355,509 shares of the company’s stock worth $562,793,000 after purchasing an additional 191,236 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in Altria Group by 120.6% during the first quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 8,762,047 shares of the company’s stock worth $382,201,000 after buying an additional 4,789,788 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Altria Group by 25.0% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,490,441 shares of the company’s stock worth $295,055,000 after buying an additional 1,299,703 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Altria Group by 5.0% during the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,060,589 shares of the company’s stock worth $230,510,000 after buying an additional 243,201 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management increased its holdings in Altria Group by 4.6% during the second quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 4,888,137 shares of the company’s stock worth $222,655,000 after buying an additional 215,594 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Altria Group Stock Performance

MO stock opened at $49.80 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $51.46 and its 200 day simple moving average is $47.95. Altria Group, Inc. has a 52 week low of $39.06 and a 52 week high of $54.95. The company has a market capitalization of $85.54 billion, a PE ratio of 10.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.65.

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

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 10th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a $1.02 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This is an increase from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. This represents a $4.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.19%. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio is 85.36%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Citigroup boosted their target price 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. Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of 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 upped their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Altria Group has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $48.20.

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.