Altria Group (NYSE:MO) Shares Up 1.5% – What’s Next?

Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)’s share price rose 1.5% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $58.55 and last traded at $57.89. Approximately 3,235,750 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 58% from the average daily volume of 7,791,579 shares. The stock had previously closed at $57.01.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America raised Altria Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $55.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Altria Group from $54.00 to $53.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 31st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Altria Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $53.29.

Altria Group Trading Up 1.4 %

The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $53.15 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $53.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $97.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.56.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The company reported $1.29 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.28 by $0.01. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 258.72% and a net margin of 46.90%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Altria Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 25th will be issued a $1.02 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 25th. This represents a $4.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.06%. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 62.29%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Altria Group

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MO. State Street Corp raised its position in Altria Group by 5.6% during 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 period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Altria Group in the 4th quarter worth approximately $137,536,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 59,805,286 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,127,218,000 after buying an additional 2,296,972 shares in the last quarter. Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Altria Group during the 4th quarter valued at $91,000. Finally, Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Altria Group by 729.8% during the 3rd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 1,969,262 shares of the company’s stock valued at $100,511,000 after purchasing an additional 1,731,932 shares in the last quarter. 57.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.