Searle & CO. Reduces Stock Position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Searle & CO. trimmed its position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,899 shares of the company’s stock after selling 899 shares during the quarter. Searle & CO.’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $863,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in shares of Altria Group by 120.6% during the 1st quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 8,762,047 shares of the company’s stock worth $382,201,000 after purchasing an additional 4,789,788 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Altria Group by 25.0% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,490,441 shares of the company’s stock worth $295,055,000 after purchasing an additional 1,299,703 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its stake in shares of Altria Group by 415.4% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 984,285 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,935,000 after purchasing an additional 793,327 shares during the last quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Altria Group during the 1st quarter worth $27,613,000. Finally, Distillate Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Altria Group by 182,943.7% during the 2nd quarter. Distillate Capital Partners LLC now owns 569,266 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,930,000 after purchasing an additional 568,955 shares during the last quarter. 57.41% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MO. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Altria Group from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. UBS Group upped their target price on Altria Group from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Barclays upped their target price on Altria Group from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. StockNews.com lowered Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on Altria Group from $44.50 to $48.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Altria Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $48.20.

Altria Group Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of MO stock traded down $0.32 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $49.74. The stock had a trading volume of 1,334,961 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,875,921. The business’s fifty day moving average is $51.49 and its 200-day moving average is $47.94. The firm has a market cap of $85.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.41, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.65. Altria Group, Inc. has a 1-year low of $39.06 and a 1-year high of $54.95.

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

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were given a dividend of $1.02 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $4.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.20%. This is an increase from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 85.36%.

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.