Jmac Enterprises LLC Buys Shares of 4,277 Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Jmac Enterprises LLC bought a new stake in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 4,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $218,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MO. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 3,786.6% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,743,443 shares of the company’s stock worth $88,985,000 after buying an additional 1,698,585 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 1,299,703 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 415.4% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 984,285 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,935,000 after buying an additional 793,327 shares during the last quarter. National Pension Service increased its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 19.9% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 4,034,414 shares of the company’s stock worth $205,916,000 after buying an additional 670,858 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP bought a new position in shares of Altria Group in the 1st quarter worth $27,613,000. 57.41% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Altria Group Price Performance

Shares of Altria Group stock opened at $53.54 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $51.49 and a 200 day moving average of $48.70. The firm has a market cap of $90.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.04, a PEG ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 0.64. Altria Group, Inc. has a 1 year low of $39.25 and a 1 year high of $55.05.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.35 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $6.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.33 billion. Altria Group had a net margin of 42.82% and a negative return on equity of 233.80%. Altria Group’s quarterly revenue was up 18.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.28 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.11 EPS for the current year.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The company 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 positive change from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. This represents a $4.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 68.92%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on MO shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. UBS Group upped 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. StockNews.com raised shares of Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Altria Group from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Altria Group from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $51.33.

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.