Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC Sells 4,619 Shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC lessened its stake in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 17.0% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 22,537 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,619 shares during the period. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $1,178,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in MO. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 73,481,686 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,821,831,000 after buying an additional 3,910,738 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings 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 worth $2,935,224,000 after buying an additional 589,832 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,803,759 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,079,919,000 after buying an additional 1,003,605 shares in the last quarter. National Pension Service raised its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 19.9% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 4,034,414 shares of the company’s stock worth $205,916,000 after buying an additional 670,858 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can raised its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 3,051,644 shares of the company’s stock worth $155,786,000 after buying an additional 35,953 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MO has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Bank of America upgraded Altria Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $55.00 to $65.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Altria Group from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com upgraded Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Morgan Stanley began coverage on Altria Group in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $54.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Altria Group from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Altria Group currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $53.43.

Altria Group Stock Down 1.7 %

NYSE:MO opened at $52.54 on Wednesday. Altria Group, Inc. has a 12-month low of $39.25 and a 12-month high of $58.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $89.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 0.64. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $53.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is $52.26.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.35 by $0.03. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 233.80% and a net margin of 42.82%. The business had revenue of $6.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.33 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.28 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 18.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Altria Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 26th were paid a dividend of $1.02 per share. This represents a $4.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.77%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 26th. Altria Group’s payout ratio is presently 68.92%.

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.