Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) Shares Bought by Graypoint LLC

Graypoint LLC increased its position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 9.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 14,082 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,158 shares during the period. Graypoint LLC’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $736,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of MO. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Altria Group by 5.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 73,481,686 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,821,831,000 after buying an additional 3,910,738 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Altria Group by 729.8% in the third quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 1,969,262 shares of the company’s stock valued at $100,511,000 after buying an additional 1,731,932 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in shares of Altria Group by 3,786.6% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,743,443 shares of the company’s stock valued at $88,985,000 after buying an additional 1,698,585 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Altria Group by 25.0% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,490,441 shares of the company’s stock valued at $295,055,000 after buying an additional 1,299,703 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Altria Group by 2.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,803,759 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,079,919,000 after buying an additional 1,003,605 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on MO shares. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Altria Group from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $44.50 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $53.33.

Altria Group Trading Down 1.3 %

NYSE MO opened at $50.84 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $54.56 and its 200-day simple moving average is $51.76. Altria Group, Inc. has a 52 week low of $39.25 and a 52 week high of $58.03. The stock has a market cap of $86.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.59, a PEG ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.64.

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

Altria Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 26th were issued a $1.02 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 26th. This represents a $4.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.03%. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.92%.

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.