Altria Group, Inc. $MO Shares Sold by Integrity Alliance LLC.

Integrity Alliance LLC. lessened its stake in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 28.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 16,469 shares of the company’s stock after selling 6,438 shares during the quarter. Integrity Alliance LLC.’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $966,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. GQG Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Altria Group by 8,146.4% in the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 18,698,594 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,122,290,000 after acquiring an additional 18,471,846 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Altria Group in the 1st quarter valued at $219,141,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Altria Group by 5.8% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 63,288,773 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,798,592,000 after acquiring an additional 3,483,487 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of Altria Group by 40.0% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 11,961,220 shares of the company’s stock valued at $717,913,000 after acquiring an additional 3,415,237 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of Altria Group by 111.3% in the 1st quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 5,558,252 shares of the company’s stock valued at $333,606,000 after acquiring an additional 2,928,006 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on MO. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Altria Group from $57.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Altria Group from $65.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Stifel Nicolaus set a $72.00 target price on shares of Altria Group in a research note on Thursday, August 21st. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Altria Group in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $50.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Altria Group from $49.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Altria Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $62.33.

Altria Group Price Performance

Altria Group stock opened at $56.45 on Friday. Altria Group, Inc. has a 12-month low of $50.08 and a 12-month high of $68.60. The company has a market capitalization of $94.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.45 and a beta of 0.55. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $65.11 and its 200 day moving average price is $61.86.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The company reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.44 by $0.01. Altria Group had a net margin of 37.24% and a negative return on equity of 295.26%. The firm had revenue of $5.25 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.31 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.38 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. Altria Group has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.370-5.45 EPS. Analysts forecast that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 15th were given a $1.06 dividend. This represents a $4.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 15th. This is an increase from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. Altria Group’s payout ratio is presently 82.01%.

Altria Group announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Thursday, October 30th that authorizes the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.