Altria Group (NYSE:MO) Trading Down 0.6% – Should You Sell?

Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) shares were down 0.6% on Thursday . The company traded as low as $52.40 and last traded at $53.04. Approximately 1,387,293 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 81% from the average daily volume of 7,192,424 shares. The stock had previously closed at $53.34.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on MO shares. Bank of America raised shares of Altria Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $55.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Altria Group from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com raised shares of Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Altria Group from $54.00 to $53.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $52.00 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 four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Altria Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $53.29.

Altria Group Stock Up 0.3 %

The company’s fifty day moving average is $52.90 and its 200 day moving average is $52.55. The firm has a market cap of $90.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.17, a PEG ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.64.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The company reported $1.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.01. Altria Group had a net margin of 46.90% and a negative return on equity of 258.72%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Altria Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 26th were given a $1.02 dividend. This represents a $4.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 26th. Altria Group’s payout ratio is presently 62.29%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Altria Group

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of MO. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC bought a new position in shares of Altria Group in the third quarter valued at about $200,000. Wesbanco Bank Inc. increased its position in Altria Group by 2.2% during the third quarter. Wesbanco Bank Inc. now owns 37,891 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,934,000 after acquiring an additional 825 shares during the period. Creative Planning increased its position in Altria Group by 4.7% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 531,504 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,128,000 after acquiring an additional 24,039 shares during the period. Zhang Financial LLC increased its position in Altria Group by 1.1% during the third quarter. Zhang Financial LLC now owns 18,454 shares of the company’s stock worth $942,000 after acquiring an additional 202 shares during the period. Finally, Lynch & Associates IN increased its position in Altria Group by 3.0% during the third quarter. Lynch & Associates IN now owns 29,513 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,506,000 after acquiring an additional 850 shares during the period. 57.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.