FSA Advisors Inc. Acquires 221 Shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

FSA Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,596 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 221 shares during the quarter. FSA Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $268,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in Altria Group by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 12,355,509 shares of the company’s stock valued at $562,793,000 after purchasing an additional 191,236 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in Altria Group by 120.6% in the 1st quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 8,762,047 shares of the company’s stock valued at $382,201,000 after purchasing an additional 4,789,788 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Altria Group by 25.0% in the 2nd 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 period. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 5.0% during the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,060,589 shares of the company’s stock worth $230,510,000 after acquiring an additional 243,201 shares during the period. Finally, LSV Asset Management lifted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 4,888,137 shares of the company’s stock worth $222,655,000 after acquiring an additional 215,594 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on MO. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $44.50 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Altria Group from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of Altria Group from $57.00 to $53.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Altria Group from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Altria Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $48.20.

Altria Group Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE MO opened at $49.71 on Monday. Altria Group, Inc. has a 12-month low of $39.06 and a 12-month high of $54.95. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $51.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $48.11. The company has a market cap of $85.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.65.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported $1.31 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $6.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.39 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.31 earnings per share. Altria Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 10th. Stockholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.21%. This is an increase from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio is 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.