Altria Group, Inc. (MO) To Go Ex-Dividend on December 26th

Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, December 11th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Thursday, December 26th will be given a dividend of 1.02 per share on Friday, January 10th. This represents a $4.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 26th.

Altria Group has raised its dividend payment by an average of 4.1% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 56 consecutive years. Altria Group has a dividend payout ratio of 76.3% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings tumble. Equities analysts expect Altria Group to earn $5.32 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $4.08 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 76.7%.

Altria Group Price Performance

MO opened at $55.01 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $93.22 billion, a PE ratio of 9.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 0.63. The business has a 50-day moving average of $53.41 and a 200-day moving average of $50.71. Altria Group has a fifty-two week low of $39.25 and a fifty-two week high of $58.03.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $6.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.33 billion. Altria Group had a net margin of 42.82% and a negative return on equity of 233.80%. Altria Group’s revenue was up 18.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.28 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Altria Group will post 5.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup increased their price objective on Altria Group from $44.50 to $48.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Altria Group from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com raised shares of Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on Altria Group from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Altria Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $55.00 to $65.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $53.33.

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.