Signature Wealth Management Partners LLC Buys 1,367 Shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Signature Wealth Management Partners LLC grew its stake in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 10.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 14,337 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,367 shares during the quarter. Signature Wealth Management Partners LLC’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $750,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in MO. Algert Global LLC boosted its position in Altria Group by 32.0% during the second quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 9,600 shares of the company’s stock worth $437,000 after purchasing an additional 2,330 shares during the period. Creative Planning lifted its stake in shares of Altria Group by 0.9% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 507,465 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,115,000 after buying an additional 4,569 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP boosted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 60.1% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 3,498 shares of the company’s stock worth $159,000 after buying an additional 1,313 shares during the period. Gateway Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in Altria Group in the 2nd quarter valued at $207,000. Finally, Kimelman & Baird LLC bought a new position in Altria Group in the 2nd quarter worth $127,000. Institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Altria Group from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays raised their target price on Altria Group from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on Altria Group in a report on Thursday, January 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $54.00 price target for the company. Citigroup increased their price objective on Altria Group from $44.50 to $48.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of Altria Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $55.00 to $65.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $53.43.

Altria Group Trading Down 1.7 %

MO opened at $52.54 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $53.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is $52.26. The stock has a market cap of $89.04 billion, a PE ratio of 8.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 0.64. Altria Group, Inc. has a 1 year low of $39.25 and a 1 year high of $58.03.

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

Altria Group Announces Dividend

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

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.