Ted Buchan & Co Buys Shares of 11,710 Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Ted Buchan & Co acquired a new position in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 11,710 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $533,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in Altria Group by 120.6% in the first quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 8,762,047 shares of the company’s stock valued at $382,201,000 after buying an additional 4,789,788 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Altria Group by 25.0% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,490,441 shares of the company’s stock valued at $295,055,000 after buying an additional 1,299,703 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its stake in Altria Group by 415.4% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 984,285 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,935,000 after buying an additional 793,327 shares during the last quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP purchased a new stake in Altria Group in the first quarter valued at approximately $27,613,000. Finally, Distillate Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in Altria Group by 182,943.7% in the second quarter. Distillate Capital Partners LLC now owns 569,266 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,930,000 after buying an additional 568,955 shares during the last quarter. 57.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MO has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Altria Group from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Altria Group from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. StockNews.com upgraded Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Bank of America upped their price target on Altria Group from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on Altria Group from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $49.67.

Altria Group Price Performance

Altria Group stock opened at $51.04 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $51.53 and its 200-day moving average is $47.20. The company has a market cap of $87.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 0.65. Altria Group, Inc. has a 12 month low of $39.06 and a 12 month high of $54.95.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported $1.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by ($0.04). Altria Group had a net margin of 42.25% and a negative return on equity of 232.55%. The company had revenue of $6.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.39 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.31 EPS. Altria Group’s quarterly revenue was up 14.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.11 EPS for the current year.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.02 per share. This represents a $4.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.99%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 16th. This is a positive change from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 85.36%.

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.