Altria Group, Inc. $MO Shares Bought by Valmark Advisers Inc.

Valmark Advisers Inc. lifted its holdings in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 12.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,653 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 643 shares during the period. Valmark Advisers Inc.’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $331,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC increased its position in shares of Altria Group by 88.5% in the first quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 8,536 shares of the company’s stock worth $512,000 after acquiring an additional 4,007 shares in the last quarter. Central Valley Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Altria Group in the second quarter worth $1,715,000. Invst LLC boosted its stake in shares of Altria Group by 252.0% in the first quarter. Invst LLC now owns 16,188 shares of the company’s stock valued at $972,000 after purchasing an additional 11,589 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its stake in shares of Altria Group by 17.4% in the second quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 1,086,060 shares of the company’s stock valued at $63,676,000 after purchasing an additional 161,356 shares during the period. Finally, Carr Financial Group Corp purchased a new position in shares of Altria Group in the second quarter valued at $241,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MO has been the subject of several analyst reports. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Altria Group from $49.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $72.00 target price on shares of Altria Group in a research note on Thursday, August 21st. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Altria Group in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $50.00 target price for the company. UBS Group upgraded shares of Altria Group from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $47.00 to $59.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Altria Group in a research note on Wednesday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $62.11.

Altria Group Price Performance

NYSE MO opened at $66.54 on Friday. Altria Group, Inc. has a 12 month low of $48.86 and a 12 month high of $68.60. The company has a market capitalization of $111.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 0.55. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $65.72 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $61.20.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.37 by $0.07. Altria Group had a net margin of 37.24% and a negative return on equity of 295.26%. The firm had revenue of $5.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.21 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.31 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up .2% compared to the same quarter last year. Altria Group has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.350-5.450 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.32 EPS for the current year.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 15th were issued a dividend of $1.06 per share. This represents a $4.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.4%. This is a positive change from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 15th. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 82.01%.

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.