Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Grows Stake in Altria Group, Inc. $MO

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lifted its stake in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 6.6% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,596,710 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 99,138 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $93,615,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al bought a new stake in Altria Group in the 2nd quarter worth about $126,471,000. Central Valley Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Altria Group during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,715,000. Invst LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 252.0% during the 1st quarter. Invst LLC now owns 16,188 shares of the company’s stock valued at $972,000 after acquiring an additional 11,589 shares during the last quarter. Mayflower Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Altria Group by 5.5% in the second quarter. Mayflower Financial Advisors LLC now owns 79,019 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,633,000 after acquiring an additional 4,149 shares during the period. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 17.4% during 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 last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on MO. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Altria Group from $49.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $72.00 price target on Altria Group in a research note on Thursday, August 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Altria Group from $65.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. UBS Group dropped their target price on Altria Group from $68.00 to $61.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Altria Group from $64.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 22nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.33.

Altria Group Stock Performance

Shares of Altria Group stock opened at $57.24 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $96.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.07, a P/E/G ratio of 3.45 and a beta of 0.51. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $64.35 and its 200 day moving average is $61.84. Altria Group, Inc. has a one year low of $50.08 and a one year high of $68.60.

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

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared 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 is an increase from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. This represents a $4.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 15th. Altria Group’s payout ratio is presently 80.92%.

Altria Group announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, October 30th that permits the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Altria Group Company 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.