Mainstay Capital Management LLC ADV Makes New $839,000 Investment in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Mainstay Capital Management LLC ADV acquired a new position in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 16,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $839,000.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 4,789,788 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in Altria Group by 3,786.6% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,743,443 shares of the company’s stock valued at $88,985,000 after acquiring an additional 1,698,585 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in Altria Group by 25.0% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,490,441 shares of the company’s stock worth $295,055,000 after acquiring an additional 1,299,703 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its position in Altria Group by 415.4% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 984,285 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,935,000 after acquiring an additional 793,327 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Altria Group during the first quarter valued at approximately $27,613,000. 57.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MO has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $57.00 to $53.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. StockNews.com cut Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Citigroup lifted 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 upped their target price on Altria Group from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Altria Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $48.20.

Altria Group Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of MO stock opened at $49.92 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $51.46 and its 200 day moving average is $47.95. The stock has a market cap of $85.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.44, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.65. Altria Group, Inc. has a twelve month low of $39.06 and a twelve month high of $54.95.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported $1.31 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by ($0.04). Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 232.55% and a net margin of 42.25%. The business had revenue of $6.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.39 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.31 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 14.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The business 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 was Monday, September 16th. 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. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio 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.