Altria Group (NYSE:MO) Raised to Hold at Needham & Company LLC

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) was upgraded by research analysts at Needham & Company LLC to a “hold” rating in a report released on Thursday, Marketbeat Ratings reports.

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on MO. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Altria Group from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Altria Group from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Altria Group from $54.00 to $53.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Altria Group from $60.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $56.00.

Altria Group Price Performance

NYSE:MO opened at $59.74 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $58.13 and its two-hundred day moving average is $55.68. Altria Group has a 12 month low of $43.83 and a 12 month high of $61.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $100.63 billion, a PE ratio of 9.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.60.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Altria Group

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MO. Csenge Advisory Group boosted its stake in Altria Group by 29.1% during the 4th quarter. Csenge Advisory Group now owns 54,684 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,859,000 after purchasing an additional 12,320 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp raised its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 27.6% during the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 2,418,074 shares of the company’s stock valued at $126,441,000 after buying an additional 523,146 shares during the last quarter. Burford Brothers Inc. boosted its position in shares of Altria Group by 40.3% during the fourth quarter. Burford Brothers Inc. now owns 36,951 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,932,000 after buying an additional 10,605 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Altria Group by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 3,414,856 shares of the company’s stock worth $178,563,000 after buying an additional 39,341 shares during the period. Finally, Impact Partnership Wealth LLC bought a new position in Altria Group in the 4th quarter worth approximately $920,000. Institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

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.