Altria Group (NYSE:MO) Trading 0.3% Higher

Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)’s share price traded up 0.3% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $43.88 and last traded at $43.67. 3,485,358 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 71% from the average session volume of 11,884,520 shares. The stock had previously closed at $43.54.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price target on shares of Altria Group in a report on Monday, March 25th. StockNews.com lowered Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, April 14th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on Altria Group from $36.10 to $36.50 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $46.90.

Altria Group Trading Down 0.4 %

The company has a fifty day moving average of $42.12 and a two-hundred day moving average of $41.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $74.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.65.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.15. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 244.55% and a net margin of 33.21%. The firm had revenue of $4.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.71 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.18 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Altria Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 25th will be given a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 22nd. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 85.78%.

Altria Group declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, February 1st that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 1.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Altria Group by 11.3% during the third quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,934 shares of the company’s stock valued at $125,000 after purchasing an additional 299 shares during the period. Strategic Blueprint LLC increased its position in shares of Altria Group by 10.0% during the third quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC now owns 9,993 shares of the company’s stock valued at $420,000 after purchasing an additional 905 shares during the period. CX Institutional increased its position in shares of Altria Group by 306.4% during the third quarter. CX Institutional now owns 67,227 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,827,000 after purchasing an additional 50,683 shares during the period. Galvin Gaustad & Stein LLC bought a new stake in shares of Altria Group during the third quarter valued at approximately $214,000. Finally, Czech National Bank increased its position in shares of Altria Group by 46.8% during the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 310,165 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,042,000 after purchasing an additional 98,852 shares during the period. 57.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.