Godsey & Gibb Inc. Decreases Position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Godsey & Gibb Inc. decreased its stake in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 12.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 14,088 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,950 shares during the period. Godsey & Gibb Inc.’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $737,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of MO. State Street Corp lifted its position in Altria Group by 5.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 73,481,686 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,821,831,000 after buying an additional 3,910,738 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised 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 valued at $100,511,000 after acquiring an additional 1,731,932 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 3,786.6% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,743,443 shares of the company’s stock worth $88,985,000 after acquiring an additional 1,698,585 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Altria Group by 25.0% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,490,441 shares of the company’s stock worth $295,055,000 after purchasing an additional 1,299,703 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Altria Group by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,803,759 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,079,919,000 after purchasing an additional 1,003,605 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Altria Group Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE MO opened at $51.04 on Thursday. Altria Group, Inc. has a twelve month low of $39.25 and a twelve month high of $58.03. The firm has a market cap of $86.50 billion, a PE ratio of 8.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.64. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $54.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $51.92.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.38 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.35 by $0.03. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 233.80% and a net margin of 42.82%. The firm had revenue of $6.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.33 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.28 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Altria Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 26th were issued a $1.02 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 26th. This represents a $4.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.99%. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.92%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MO has been the subject of several analyst reports. Bank of America raised shares of Altria Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $55.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Altria Group from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Altria Group from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Altria Group from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $53.33.

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.