Altria Group (NYSE:MO) Stock Price Up 0.9% Following Analyst Upgrade

Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) shares shot up 0.9% during mid-day trading on Wednesday after Citigroup raised their price target on the stock from $44.50 to $48.00. Citigroup currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Altria Group traded as high as $50.00 and last traded at $49.99. 1,476,126 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 85% from the average session volume of 10,070,085 shares. The stock had previously closed at $49.55.

MO has been the subject of several other research reports. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Altria Group from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. UBS Group increased their target price on Altria Group from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. StockNews.com raised Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Bank of America upped their price objective on Altria Group from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on Altria Group from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $50.17.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in Altria Group by 120.6% during the first quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 8,762,047 shares of the company’s stock worth $382,201,000 after buying an additional 4,789,788 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Altria Group by 25.0% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,490,441 shares of the company’s stock valued at $295,055,000 after acquiring an additional 1,299,703 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its stake in shares of Altria Group by 415.4% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 984,285 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,935,000 after purchasing an additional 793,327 shares during the last quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP bought a new stake in shares of Altria Group in the 1st quarter valued at about $27,613,000. Finally, Distillate Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in Altria Group by 182,943.7% in the 2nd quarter. Distillate Capital Partners LLC now owns 569,266 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,930,000 after purchasing an additional 568,955 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Altria Group Stock Up 0.9 %

The business has a fifty day moving average of $51.55 and a 200 day moving average of $47.45. The firm has a market cap of $85.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.46, a PEG ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 0.65.

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

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 10th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 8.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 16th. This is a boost from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.