Altria Group, Inc. (MO) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $1.02 on October 10th

Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, August 22nd, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th will be given a dividend of 1.02 per share on Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $4.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 16th. This is a boost from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98.

Altria Group has raised its dividend by an average of 4.1% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 56 years. Altria Group has a dividend payout ratio of 76.8% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings decline. Equities research analysts expect Altria Group to earn $5.30 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $4.08 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 77.0%.

Altria Group Price Performance

Shares of MO stock opened at $52.96 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $50.89 and a 200 day moving average of $46.42. Altria Group has a 1 year low of $39.06 and a 1 year high of $54.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $90.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.65.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported $1.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.35 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $6.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.39 billion. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 232.55% and a net margin of 42.25%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.31 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Altria Group will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on MO. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Barclays increased their price target on Altria Group from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Argus raised Altria Group to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, May 31st. UBS Group raised their target price on Altria Group from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $49.67.

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.