Altria Group (NYSE:MO) Trading Up 1.1% – Here’s What Happened

Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) shot up 1.1% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $51.74 and last traded at $51.70. 2,086,248 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 66% from the average session volume of 6,193,173 shares. The stock had previously closed at $51.16.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Altria Group from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Bank of America raised shares of Altria Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $55.00 to $65.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com raised shares of Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Altria Group from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on Altria Group in a report on Thursday. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $54.00 price objective on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $53.43.

Altria Group Trading Up 1.5 %

The company has a market cap of $87.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.64. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $54.29 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $51.95.

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

Altria Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 10th. Shareholders 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 yield of 7.86%. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.92%.

Institutional Trading of Altria Group

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in MO. State Street Corp grew its stake in Altria Group by 5.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 73,481,686 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,821,831,000 after acquiring an additional 3,910,738 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Altria Group by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 57,508,314 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,935,224,000 after purchasing an additional 589,832 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake 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 worth $2,079,919,000 after purchasing an additional 1,003,605 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in Altria Group by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 12,355,509 shares of the company’s stock worth $562,793,000 after buying an additional 191,236 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 period. Institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

About Altria Group

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.