Busey Bank Has $9.18 Million Position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Busey Bank raised its holdings in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 0.8% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 179,820 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,361 shares during the quarter. Busey Bank’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $9,178,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 12,355,509 shares of the company’s stock valued at $562,793,000 after acquiring an additional 191,236 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position 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 purchasing an additional 4,789,788 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC grew 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 valued at $295,055,000 after purchasing an additional 1,299,703 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew 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 valued at $230,510,000 after purchasing an additional 243,201 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management raised its position in shares of Altria Group by 4.6% in the second quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 4,888,137 shares of the company’s stock valued at $222,655,000 after purchasing an additional 215,594 shares during the period. 57.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Barclays raised their price target on Altria Group from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Altria Group from $44.50 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. UBS Group increased their target price on Altria Group from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Two investment 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 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $48.20.

Altria Group Stock Performance

Shares of MO opened at $49.92 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $51.46 and a 200-day simple moving average of $47.95. Altria Group, Inc. has a 52 week low of $39.06 and a 52 week high of $54.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $85.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.65.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last posted 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 firm had revenue of $6.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.39 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.31 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 14.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a dividend of $1.02 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $4.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.17%. This is an increase from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. Altria Group’s payout ratio is currently 70.34%.

Altria Group 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.