Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. Sells 1,135 Shares of Altria Group, Inc. $MO

Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. lowered its holdings in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 2.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 50,140 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,135 shares during the period. Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc.’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $2,940,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MO. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in Altria Group by 64.7% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 17,702 shares of the company’s stock valued at $926,000 after purchasing an additional 6,954 shares in the last quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 235.7% in the 1st quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 14,890 shares of the company’s stock valued at $893,000 after buying an additional 10,454 shares during the last quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Altria Group by 7.7% in the first quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 6,751 shares of the company’s stock valued at $405,000 after buying an additional 485 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its holdings in Altria Group by 1.6% during the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 395,085 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,008,000 after buying an additional 6,249 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Greenleaf Trust raised its position in Altria Group by 7.0% during the first quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 42,735 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,565,000 after acquiring an additional 2,791 shares in the last quarter. 57.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Altria Group Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of NYSE MO opened at $57.24 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $96.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.45 and a beta of 0.51. The business’s 50 day moving average is $64.35 and its 200-day moving average is $61.84. Altria Group, Inc. has a 1-year low of $50.08 and a 1-year high of $68.60.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The company reported $1.45 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.44 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $5.25 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.31 billion. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 295.26% and a net margin of 37.24%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.38 EPS. Altria Group has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.370-5.45 EPS. Analysts forecast that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.32 EPS for the current year.

Altria Group declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, October 30th that allows the company to buyback $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 15th were issued a $1.06 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 15th. This represents a $4.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.4%. This is an increase from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. Altria Group’s payout ratio is presently 80.92%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $68.00 to $61.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Barclays boosted their price target on Altria Group from $49.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $72.00 price objective on Altria Group in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Altria Group from $57.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Altria Group from $65.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Altria Group has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.33.

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.