Altria Group (NYSE:MO) Stock Price Down 0.5%

Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)’s stock price fell 0.5% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $41.44 and last traded at $41.46. 2,018,197 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 83% from the average session volume of 11,605,823 shares. The stock had previously closed at $41.68.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on MO. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 target price on shares of Altria Group in a research note on Monday, March 25th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Altria Group from $36.10 to $36.50 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Altria Group has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $46.90.

Altria Group Stock Performance

The company has a 50-day moving average of $41.82 and a 200-day moving average of $41.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $70.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.65.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.17 by $0.01. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 244.55% and a net margin of 33.21%. The firm had revenue of $5.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.06 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.18 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Altria Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 25th will be given a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 22nd. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 85.78%.

Altria Group declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Thursday, February 1st that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to buy up to 1.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Altria Group

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 108,222.5% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 18,590,308 shares of the company’s stock valued at $849,763,000 after buying an additional 18,573,146 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 4,665.6% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 3,972,259 shares of the company’s stock valued at $160,241,000 after buying an additional 3,888,907 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 84.1% in the 2nd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 5,426,522 shares of the company’s stock valued at $245,823,000 after buying an additional 2,478,576 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 24.9% in the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 12,233,444 shares of the company’s stock valued at $493,497,000 after buying an additional 2,436,172 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 6.4% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 36,302,349 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,896,798,000 after buying an additional 2,178,596 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

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.