Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) Shares Bought by Wealth Effects LLC

by · The Markets Daily

Wealth Effects LLC increased its stake in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO – Free Report) by 4.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 11,525 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 450 shares during the quarter. Wealth Effects LLC’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $465,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of MO. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Altria Group by 108,222.5% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 18,590,308 shares of the company’s stock valued at $849,763,000 after purchasing an additional 18,573,146 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its stake in Altria Group by 84.1% during the 2nd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 5,426,522 shares of the company’s stock valued at $245,823,000 after purchasing an additional 2,478,576 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Altria Group by 6.4% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 36,302,349 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,896,798,000 after purchasing an additional 2,178,596 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Altria Group by 54.1% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,710,670 shares of the company’s stock valued at $198,084,000 after purchasing an additional 1,653,455 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its stake in Altria Group by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 17,105,285 shares of the company’s stock valued at $781,883,000 after purchasing an additional 1,531,337 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have commented on MO shares. StockNews.com raised Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, April 6th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 target price on shares of Altria Group in a report on Monday, March 25th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on Altria Group from $36.10 to $36.50 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Altria Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $46.90.

Read Our Latest Analysis on Altria Group

Altria Group Trading Down 0.1 %

MO traded down $0.03 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $41.40. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,645,632 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,593,374. Altria Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $39.06 and a fifty-two week high of $48.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $71.11 billion, a PE ratio of 9.05, a PEG ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $41.82 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.46.

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

Altria Group declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, February 1st that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to purchase up to 1.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Altria Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.47%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 22nd. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 85.78%.

Altria Group Profile

(Free Report)

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.

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