Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners Makes New Investment in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners acquired a new position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 1,068 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Altshuler Shaham Ltd purchased a new position in Altria Group in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Nemes Rush Group LLC boosted its stake in Altria Group by 103.2% in the third quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 636 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 323 shares during the last quarter. ZRC Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Altria Group by 67.6% in the fourth quarter. ZRC Wealth Management LLC now owns 677 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 273 shares during the last quarter. Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Altria Group by 1,800.0% in the third quarter. Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. now owns 703 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 666 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fortis Group Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Altria Group during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. 57.41% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Altria Group from $36.10 to $36.50 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price target on shares of Altria Group in a research note on Monday, March 25th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, April 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Altria Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $46.90.

Altria Group Price Performance

NYSE MO opened at $42.87 on Wednesday. Altria Group, Inc. has a 1 year low of $39.06 and a 1 year high of $48.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $73.63 billion, a PE ratio of 9.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.65. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $42.00 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $41.44.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $1.18 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.17 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $5.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.06 billion. Altria Group had a net margin of 33.21% and a negative return on equity of 244.55%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.18 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.09 EPS for the current year.

Altria Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 25th will be issued a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 22nd. Altria Group’s payout ratio is 85.78%.

Altria Group declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, February 1st that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to buy up to 1.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.