Altria Group (NYSE:MO) Shares Up 0.1% on Analyst Upgrade

Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) traded up 0.1% on Monday after StockNews.com upgraded the stock from a hold rating to a buy rating. The stock traded as high as $54.05 and last traded at $53.94. 2,299,240 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 77% from the average session volume of 9,869,530 shares. The stock had previously closed at $53.87.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $57.00 to $53.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Altria Group from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Altria Group from $44.50 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on Altria Group from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $51.17.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Altria Group

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MO. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Altria Group during the second quarter worth about $27,000. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Altria Group in the second quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Altria Group by 63.9% in the second quarter. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. now owns 667 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 260 shares in the last quarter. Lynx Investment Advisory acquired a new position in Altria Group during the second quarter worth $44,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd raised its position in Altria Group by 33.4% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,047 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 262 shares in the last quarter. 57.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Altria Group Stock Up 0.0 %

The company has a market cap of $91.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.10, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.64. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $51.44 and a 200 day simple moving average of $48.57.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.35 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $6.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.33 billion. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 233.80% and a net margin of 42.82%. The business’s revenue was up 18.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.28 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 10th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a $1.02 dividend. This is an increase from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $4.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.57%. Altria Group’s payout ratio is presently 68.92%.

About Altria Group

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.