GW Henssler & Associates Ltd. Boosts Stock Position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

GW Henssler & Associates Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 2.2% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 344,531 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 7,473 shares during the period. GW Henssler & Associates Ltd.’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $17,585,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in shares of Altria Group by 1.6% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 12,355,509 shares of the company’s stock valued at $562,793,000 after buying an additional 191,236 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Altria Group by 25.0% in 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 period. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Altria Group by 5.0% in the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,060,589 shares of the company’s stock valued at $230,510,000 after purchasing an additional 243,201 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management boosted its stake in shares of Altria Group by 4.6% during the second quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 4,888,137 shares of the company’s stock valued at $222,655,000 after purchasing an additional 215,594 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 1.5% in the first quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 3,754,522 shares of the company’s stock worth $163,772,000 after purchasing an additional 54,096 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of Altria Group from $57.00 to $53.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Altria Group from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. StockNews.com cut Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Altria Group from $44.50 to $48.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on Altria Group from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $48.20.

Altria Group Trading Down 0.4 %

MO traded down $0.19 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $50.06. The stock had a trading volume of 1,946,608 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,792,431. Altria Group, Inc. has a one year low of $39.25 and a one year high of $54.95. The company has a market capitalization of $85.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.46, a P/E/G ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.65. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $51.40 and its two-hundred day moving average is $48.17.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported $1.31 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 business had revenue of $6.21 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.31 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 14.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a dividend of $1.02 per share. This is a boost from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $4.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.15%. Altria Group’s payout ratio is presently 85.36%.

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.