Altria Group (NYSE:MO) Trading Down 0.1% – What’s Next?

Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)’s stock price traded down 0.1% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $57.77 and last traded at $57.92. 1,505,243 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 82% from the average session volume of 8,564,415 shares. The stock had previously closed at $57.95.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Altria Group from $54.00 to $53.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America raised Altria Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $55.00 to $65.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Altria Group has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $53.29.

Altria Group Trading Up 0.1 %

The company has a 50-day moving average price of $54.16 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $53.42. The stock has a market cap of $98.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.85, a P/E/G ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.56.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The company reported $1.29 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 fiscal year.

Altria Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 25th will be given a $1.02 dividend. This represents a $4.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 25th. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 62.29%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Altria Group

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp grew its position in Altria Group by 5.6% in the 3rd 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 last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 59,805,286 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,127,218,000 after buying an additional 2,296,972 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 41,938,507 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,193,687,000 after buying an additional 1,134,748 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 22,273,491 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,164,681,000 after buying an additional 76,004 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 9.6% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 16,432,535 shares of the company’s stock worth $859,257,000 after buying an additional 1,444,021 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

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.