Courier Capital LLC Sells 4,912 Shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Courier Capital LLC decreased its stake in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 31.0% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 10,950 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,912 shares during the quarter. Courier Capital LLC’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $442,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Altria Group by 108,222.5% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 18,590,308 shares of the company’s stock worth $849,763,000 after buying an additional 18,573,146 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its position in Altria Group by 84.1% during the second quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 5,426,522 shares of the company’s stock worth $245,823,000 after buying an additional 2,478,576 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Altria Group by 6.4% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 36,302,349 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,896,798,000 after buying an additional 2,178,596 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in Altria Group by 54.1% during the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,710,670 shares of the company’s stock worth $198,084,000 after buying an additional 1,653,455 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased its position in Altria Group by 9.8% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 17,105,285 shares of the company’s stock worth $781,883,000 after buying an additional 1,531,337 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Altria Group Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of MO stock opened at $43.66 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $76.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 0.65. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $41.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.53. Altria Group, Inc. has a 1 year low of $39.06 and a 1 year high of $48.04.

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

Altria Group announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Thursday, February 1st that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 1.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Altria Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Investors of record on Monday, March 25th will be paid a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.98%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 22nd. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 85.78%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on MO shares. StockNews.com upgraded Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group restated a “sell” rating and set a $36.10 price objective on shares of Altria Group in a report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on shares of Altria Group in a report on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $46.82.

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.