Godsey & Gibb Inc. Trims Holdings in Altria Group, Inc. $MO

Godsey & Gibb Inc. cut its position in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 13,495 shares of the company’s stock after selling 410 shares during the period. Godsey & Gibb Inc.’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $791,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in MO. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Altria Group by 0.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 158,117,225 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,490,196,000 after buying an additional 1,300,787 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Altria Group by 5.8% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 63,288,773 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,798,592,000 after buying an additional 3,483,487 shares in the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 8,146.4% in the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 18,698,594 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,122,290,000 after purchasing an additional 18,471,846 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Altria Group by 3.7% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 12,243,041 shares of the company’s stock worth $734,827,000 after acquiring an additional 441,083 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 40.0% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 11,961,220 shares of the company’s stock worth $717,913,000 after acquiring an additional 3,415,237 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus set a $72.00 price target on shares of Altria Group in a report on Thursday, August 21st. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Altria Group in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $50.00 target price on the stock. UBS Group raised Altria Group from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $47.00 to $59.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Altria Group from $57.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on Altria Group from $49.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Altria Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.11.

Altria Group Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of MO stock opened at $65.36 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $65.32 and its 200-day moving average price is $61.00. Altria Group, Inc. has a 12 month low of $48.86 and a 12 month high of $68.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $109.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.64, a PEG ratio of 3.53 and a beta of 0.55.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $1.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.37 by $0.07. Altria Group had a net margin of 37.24% and a negative return on equity of 295.26%. The business had revenue of $5.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.21 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.31 earnings per share. Altria Group’s revenue for the quarter was up .2% on a year-over-year basis. Altria Group has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.350-5.450 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 15th will be given a dividend of $1.06 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 15th. This is a positive change from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. This represents a $4.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.5%. Altria Group’s payout ratio is currently 82.01%.

Altria Group 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.