FNY Investment Advisers LLC Sells 42,893 Shares of Altria Group, Inc. $MO

FNY Investment Advisers LLC cut its stake in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 76.4% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 13,257 shares of the company’s stock after selling 42,893 shares during the period. FNY Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $777,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MO. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in shares of Altria Group by 64.7% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 17,702 shares of the company’s stock valued at $926,000 after acquiring an additional 6,954 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Altria Group by 17.8% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 36,028 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,162,000 after acquiring an additional 5,440 shares during the period. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Altria Group by 8.6% during the 1st quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,078 shares of the company’s stock valued at $185,000 after acquiring an additional 243 shares during the period. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Altria Group by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 842,971 shares of the company’s stock valued at $50,595,000 after acquiring an additional 13,143 shares during the period. Finally, Legacy Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Altria Group by 161.4% during the 1st quarter. Legacy Advisors LLC now owns 27,721 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,664,000 after acquiring an additional 17,115 shares during the period. 57.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MO has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Altria Group from $65.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Altria Group in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Bank of America upped their price target on Altria Group from $64.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 22nd. Barclays upped their price target on Altria Group from $49.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Altria Group from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $47.00 to $59.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.11.

Altria Group Price Performance

Shares of MO opened at $63.77 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $107.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.58 and a beta of 0.55. Altria Group, Inc. has a 1 year low of $49.16 and a 1 year high of $68.60. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $65.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $61.54.

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

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 15th were issued a dividend of $1.06 per share. This is a positive change from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 15th. This represents a $4.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.6%. Altria Group’s payout ratio is currently 82.01%.

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.