Traynor Capital Management Inc. Increases Stock Position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Traynor Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 1.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 25,460 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 456 shares during the period. Traynor Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $1,027,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MO. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Altria Group by 108,222.5% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 18,590,308 shares of the company’s stock valued at $849,763,000 after buying an additional 18,573,146 shares during the period. Barclays PLC boosted its position in Altria Group by 84.1% during the 2nd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 5,426,522 shares of the company’s stock worth $245,823,000 after purchasing an additional 2,478,576 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Altria Group by 6.4% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 36,302,349 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,896,798,000 after purchasing an additional 2,178,596 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Altria Group by 54.1% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,710,670 shares of the company’s stock worth $198,084,000 after purchasing an additional 1,653,455 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its position in Altria Group by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 17,105,285 shares of the company’s stock worth $781,883,000 after purchasing an additional 1,531,337 shares during the period. 57.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MO. StockNews.com raised shares of Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group reissued a “sell” rating and issued a $36.10 price objective on shares of Altria Group in a research report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 price objective on shares of Altria Group in a research report on Monday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $46.82.

Altria Group Stock Performance

Shares of Altria Group stock traded down $0.04 during trading on Thursday, reaching $43.62. The company had a trading volume of 9,805,972 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,809,103. The company has a market cap of $76.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 0.65. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $41.40 and its 200-day moving average is $41.54. Altria Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $39.06 and a fifty-two week high of $48.04.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $1.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.17 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $5.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.06 billion. Altria Group had a net margin of 33.21% and a negative return on equity of 244.55%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.18 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Altria Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 25th will be paid a $0.98 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 22nd. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.99%. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 85.78%.

Altria Group announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Thursday, February 1st that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to buy up to 1.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.