Altria Group (NYSE:MO) Shares Up 0.1% Following Analyst Upgrade

Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) shot up 0.1% during mid-day trading on Friday after Barclays raised their price target on the stock from $46.00 to $49.00. Barclays currently has an underweight rating on the stock. Altria Group traded as high as $59.52 and last traded at $59.39. 1,569,851 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 84% from the average session volume of 9,585,837 shares. The stock had previously closed at $59.31.

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Altria Group in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $54.00 to $53.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Altria Group from $60.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on Altria Group from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Altria Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $56.00.

Institutional Trading of Altria Group

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Financial Life Planners acquired a new stake in shares of Altria Group during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Redwood Park Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Altria Group during the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Altria Group during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Altria Group in the 1st quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, Sierra Ocean LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 226.3% in the 1st quarter. Sierra Ocean LLC now owns 509 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 353 shares during the period. 57.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Altria Group Trading Up 0.5 %

The firm has a market cap of $100.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.10, a P/E/G ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.54. The business’s 50-day moving average is $57.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $54.85.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The company reported $1.23 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $4.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.64 billion. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 258.72% and a net margin of 46.90%. The business’s revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.15 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Altria Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 25th were issued a $1.02 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 25th. This represents a $4.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.85%. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.34%.

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.