Altrius Capital Management Inc Trims Holdings in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Altrius Capital Management Inc lowered its stake in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 1.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 100,132 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,533 shares during the period. Altrius Capital Management Inc’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $5,236,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. abrdn plc increased its holdings in Altria Group by 3.4% in the third quarter. abrdn plc now owns 221,664 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,279,000 after buying an additional 7,366 shares during the last quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. purchased a new position in Altria Group in the 3rd quarter valued at $208,000. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its stake in Altria Group by 17.5% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 48,656 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,483,000 after buying an additional 7,262 shares during the period. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. raised its position in Altria Group by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 54,491 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,781,000 after buying an additional 1,073 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Altria Group by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC now owns 87,695 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,476,000 after buying an additional 1,447 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on MO. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price 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. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Altria Group from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Altria Group from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Bank of America raised shares of Altria Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $55.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $53.29.

Altria Group Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE MO opened at $55.06 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $52.73 and a 200-day simple moving average of $52.85. Altria Group, Inc. has a twelve month low of $39.25 and a twelve month high of $58.03. The company has a market capitalization of $93.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.64.

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

Altria Group Announces Dividend

The business 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 26th. This represents a $4.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.41%. Altria Group’s payout ratio is currently 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.