Douglas Lane & Associates LLC Invests $247,000 in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Douglas Lane & Associates LLC acquired a new stake in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 4,731 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $247,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MO. Wedbush Securities Inc. lifted its position in shares of Altria Group by 17.4% in the 2nd quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc. now owns 28,104 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,280,000 after purchasing an additional 4,161 shares during the period. Choreo LLC raised its stake in Altria Group by 92.3% in the second quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 68,500 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,151,000 after buying an additional 32,875 shares in the last quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in Altria Group by 23.1% during the second quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 605,447 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,578,000 after buying an additional 113,451 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 7.1% in the 2nd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 195,270 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,895,000 after acquiring an additional 12,861 shares during the period. Finally, Coldstream Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Altria Group by 7.4% in the 2nd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 38,262 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,743,000 after acquiring an additional 2,630 shares in the last quarter. 57.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Altria Group Stock Performance

NYSE MO opened at $51.46 on Thursday. Altria Group, Inc. has a 12-month low of $39.25 and a 12-month high of $58.03. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $54.68 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $51.73. The stock has a market cap of $87.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.69, a P/E/G ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.64.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $6.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.33 billion. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 233.80% and a net margin of 42.82%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 18.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.28 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Altria Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 26th will be given a $1.02 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 26th. This represents a $4.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.93%. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.92%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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