New York State Common Retirement Fund Has $110.70 Million Stake in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

New York State Common Retirement Fund lowered its stake in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 7.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,744,200 shares of the company’s stock after selling 205,100 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $110,701,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. RFG Advisory LLC raised its stake in Altria Group by 4.8% in the third quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 11,846 shares of the company’s stock valued at $498,000 after purchasing an additional 542 shares in the last quarter. 1900 Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Altria Group by 48.8% in the 3rd quarter. 1900 Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,044 shares of the company’s stock valued at $380,000 after buying an additional 2,964 shares during the period. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Altria Group by 11.3% in the 3rd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,934 shares of the company’s stock valued at $125,000 after buying an additional 299 shares in the last quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 666.7% during the 3rd quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,725 shares of the company’s stock worth $73,000 after acquiring an additional 1,500 shares during the period. Finally, Royal Fund Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Altria Group during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $213,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Altria Group Trading Up 0.8 %

NYSE:MO traded up $0.33 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $42.90. 4,519,559 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,760,964. Altria Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $39.06 and a fifty-two week high of $48.04. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $41.95 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $73.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.38, a PEG ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.65.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.17 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $5.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.06 billion. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 244.55% and a net margin of 33.21%. Altria Group’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.18 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Altria Group announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, February 1st that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 1.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Altria Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 25th will be given a dividend of $0.98 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 22nd. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.14%. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 85.78%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on MO. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on shares of Altria Group in a research report on Monday, March 25th. StockNews.com cut Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, April 14th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on Altria Group from $36.10 to $36.50 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Altria Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $46.90.

Altria Group 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.