Altria Group (NYSE:MO) Trading 0.5% Higher

Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) traded up 0.5% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $44.20 and last traded at $44.05. 1,438,533 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 88% from the average session volume of 11,793,033 shares. The stock had previously closed at $43.82.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com lowered Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, April 14th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 price objective on shares of Altria Group in a research note on Monday, March 25th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on Altria Group from $36.10 to $36.50 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $46.90.

Altria Group Trading Up 0.7 %

The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $42.39 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.49. The company has a market cap of $75.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.66.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.15. The company had revenue of $4.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.71 billion. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 222.80% and a net margin of 34.81%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.18 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Altria Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Investors of record on Monday, March 25th were given a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.88%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 22nd. Altria Group’s payout ratio is 82.01%.

Altria Group declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, February 1st that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase up to 1.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MO. Maryland Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Altria Group by 154.4% during the 1st quarter. Maryland Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 575 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 349 shares in the last quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd acquired a new stake in Altria Group in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Accordant Advisory Group Inc acquired a new stake in Altria Group in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Nemes Rush Group LLC grew its holdings in Altria Group by 103.2% in the 3rd quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 636 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 323 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Criterion Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Altria Group in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. 57.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.