MBA Advisors LLC Purchases 983 Shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

MBA Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MOFree Report) by 8.2% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 12,973 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 983 shares during the period. MBA Advisors LLC’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $678,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of MO. State Street Corp grew its position in Altria Group by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 73,481,686 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,821,831,000 after purchasing an additional 3,910,738 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Altria Group by 729.8% in the third quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 1,969,262 shares of the company’s stock worth $100,511,000 after buying an additional 1,731,932 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 3,786.6% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,743,443 shares of the company’s stock valued at $88,985,000 after buying an additional 1,698,585 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Altria Group by 2.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,803,759 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,079,919,000 after acquiring an additional 1,003,605 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service raised its holdings in Altria Group by 19.9% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 4,034,414 shares of the company’s stock worth $205,916,000 after acquiring an additional 670,858 shares during the last quarter. 57.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on MO shares. Bank of America upgraded Altria Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $55.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Altria Group from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Altria Group from $54.00 to $53.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $53.29.

Check Out Our Latest Report on MO

Altria Group Trading Up 0.0 %

MO opened at $52.65 on Monday. Altria Group, Inc. has a 12-month low of $39.25 and a 12-month high of $58.03. The company has a market cap of $89.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.04, a PEG ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.64. The company’s 50 day moving average is $53.09 and its 200 day moving average is $52.47.

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

Altria Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 26th were paid a $1.02 dividend. This represents a $4.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.75%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 26th. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 62.29%.

Altria Group Company Profile

(Free Report)

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.

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Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Altria Group (NYSE:MO)

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