KLCM Advisors Inc. Boosts Position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

KLCM Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 5.7% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 18,036 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 970 shares during the quarter. KLCM Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $728,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in MO. Rakuten Securities Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Altria Group during the fourth quarter worth about $394,000. Scissortail Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Altria Group during the fourth quarter worth about $527,000. Tyche Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Altria Group during the fourth quarter worth about $3,954,000. Octavia Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 30.8% during the fourth quarter. Octavia Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 37,867 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,566,000 after purchasing an additional 8,915 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prosperitas Financial LLC grew its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 11.0% during the fourth quarter. Prosperitas Financial LLC now owns 35,468 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,431,000 after purchasing an additional 3,514 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Altria Group Trading Down 0.5 %

MO stock traded down $0.20 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $40.75. The company had a trading volume of 10,407,370 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,885,098. Altria Group, Inc. has a 52 week low of $39.06 and a 52 week high of $48.04. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $41.83 and its 200 day moving average price is $41.43. The stock has a market cap of $69.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.92, a PEG ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.65.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.17 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $5.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.06 billion. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 244.55% and a net margin of 33.21%. The business’s revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.18 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Altria Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Investors of record on Monday, March 25th will be issued a dividend of $0.98 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 22nd. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.62%. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 85.78%.

Altria Group declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, February 1st that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to buy up to 1.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on MO shares. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 target price on shares of Altria Group in a research report on Monday, March 25th. StockNews.com downgraded Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on Altria Group from $36.10 to $36.50 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $46.90.

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.