Morgan Stanley Begins Coverage on Altria Group (NYSE:MO)

Investment analysts at Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of Altria Group (NYSE:MO) in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The firm set an “equal weight” rating and a $54.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target suggests a potential upside of 4.02% from the company’s current price.

MO has been the topic of several other research reports. Citigroup increased their price target on Altria Group from $44.50 to $48.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. StockNews.com upgraded Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Altria Group from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Bank of America upgraded Altria Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $55.00 to $65.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on 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 assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $53.43.

Altria Group Trading Up 1.5 %

NYSE MO opened at $51.92 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $54.33 and its 200 day moving average is $51.91. Altria Group has a 12 month low of $39.25 and a 12 month high of $58.03. The stock has a market cap of $87.99 billion, a PE ratio of 8.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.64.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.38 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by $0.03. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 233.80% and a net margin of 42.82%. The company had revenue of $6.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.33 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.28 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 18.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Altria Group will post 5.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Altria Group

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MO. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in shares of Altria Group by 163.6% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 50,862 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,317,000 after buying an additional 31,568 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in shares of Altria Group by 24.6% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,141,605 shares of the company’s stock worth $97,550,000 after buying an additional 423,091 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its position in shares of Altria Group by 387.9% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 350,300 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,956,000 after buying an additional 278,500 shares in the last quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT grew its position in shares of Altria Group by 5.5% during the 2nd quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT now owns 25,310 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,153,000 after buying an additional 1,309 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wealth Alliance grew its position in shares of Altria Group by 5.3% during the 2nd quarter. Wealth Alliance now owns 9,065 shares of the company’s stock worth $413,000 after buying an additional 460 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

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.