MONECO Advisors LLC Decreases Position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

MONECO Advisors LLC reduced its stake in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 53,104 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,635 shares during the period. MONECO Advisors LLC’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $2,710,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MO. BNP Paribas purchased a new position in shares of Altria Group in the 1st quarter valued at $27,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Altria Group during the second quarter worth about $27,000. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Altria Group in the 2nd quarter valued at about $30,000. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. boosted its position in shares of Altria Group by 63.9% in the 2nd quarter. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. now owns 667 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares during the period. Finally, Lynx Investment Advisory acquired a new stake in shares of Altria Group in the 2nd quarter valued at about $44,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Altria Group Stock Up 0.1 %

NYSE MO traded up $0.07 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $50.32. 350,693 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,784,795. The company has a market cap of $86.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.65. Altria Group, Inc. has a 12-month low of $39.25 and a 12-month high of $54.95. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $51.40 and a 200 day moving average of $48.17.

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

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a $1.02 dividend. This represents a $4.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.11%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. This is an increase from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.