Argentarii LLC Invests $331,000 in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Argentarii LLC purchased a new position in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 6,323 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $331,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in MO. State Street Corp boosted its position in Altria Group by 5.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 73,481,686 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,821,831,000 after purchasing an additional 3,910,738 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Altria Group during the fourth quarter valued at about $137,536,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Altria Group by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 59,805,286 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,127,218,000 after purchasing an additional 2,296,972 shares in the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Altria Group by 729.8% during the third quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 1,969,262 shares of the company’s stock valued at $100,511,000 after purchasing an additional 1,731,932 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Altria Group by 2.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,803,759 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,079,919,000 after purchasing an additional 1,003,605 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Bank of America raised Altria Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $55.00 to $65.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Altria Group from $54.00 to $53.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 31st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Altria Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $53.29.

Altria Group Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE:MO opened at $57.79 on Monday. Altria Group, Inc. has a 52-week low of $40.65 and a 52-week high of $58.59. The stock has a market cap of $97.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.82, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.56. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $53.15 and a 200-day moving average price of $53.11.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The company reported $1.29 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.01. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 258.72% and a net margin of 46.90%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Altria Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 25th will be given a $1.02 dividend. This represents a $4.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 25th. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 62.29%.

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.