Victory Capital Management Inc. Purchases 93,121 Shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 2.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,488,007 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 93,121 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $234,678,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MO. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Altria Group by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 73,481,686 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,821,831,000 after purchasing an additional 3,910,738 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 59,805,286 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,127,218,000 after purchasing an additional 2,296,972 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 2.5% during the third 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 in the last quarter. National Pension Service boosted its position in shares of Altria Group by 4.9% during the fourth quarter. National Pension Service now owns 4,232,359 shares of the company’s stock valued at $221,310,000 after buying an additional 197,945 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its holdings in Altria Group by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 3,414,856 shares of the company’s stock worth $178,563,000 after buying an additional 39,341 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Bank of America upgraded shares of Altria Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $55.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $54.00 to $53.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Altria Group from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $53.29.

Altria Group Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of MO stock opened at $56.35 on Wednesday. Altria Group, Inc. has a 12 month low of $39.72 and a 12 month high of $58.59. The stock has a market cap of $95.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.60, a P/E/G ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $52.90 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $52.99.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The company reported $1.29 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.01. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 258.72% and a net margin of 46.90%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Altria Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 25th will be paid a dividend of $1.02 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 25th. This represents a $4.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.24%. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 62.29%.

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.