GSA Capital Partners LLP Buys 5,719 Shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

GSA Capital Partners LLP grew its stake in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 28.0% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 26,123 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,719 shares during the quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $1,333,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 729.8% during the 3rd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 1,969,262 shares of the company’s stock valued at $100,511,000 after acquiring an additional 1,731,932 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in Altria Group by 3,786.6% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,743,443 shares of the company’s stock worth $88,985,000 after purchasing an additional 1,698,585 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position 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. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its stake in Altria Group by 415.4% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 984,285 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,935,000 after buying an additional 793,327 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service lifted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 19.9% during the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 4,034,414 shares of the company’s stock valued at $205,916,000 after buying an additional 670,858 shares during the period. 57.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on MO. Bank of America reduced their price objective on Altria Group from $57.00 to $53.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $44.50 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Altria Group from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Altria Group from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $51.33.

Altria Group Stock Performance

Shares of Altria Group stock opened at $55.23 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $51.51 and a 200 day moving average of $49.05. The company has a market capitalization of $93.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.32, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.64. Altria Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $39.25 and a fifty-two week high of $55.40.

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

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This is an increase from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. Altria Group’s payout ratio is 68.92%.

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.