Lester Murray Antman dba SimplyRich Boosts Holdings in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Lester Murray Antman dba SimplyRich raised its position in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 7.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 6,337 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 412 shares during the quarter. Lester Murray Antman dba SimplyRich’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $331,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Altria Group by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 73,481,686 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,821,831,000 after purchasing an additional 3,910,738 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Altria Group by 1.0% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 57,508,314 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,935,224,000 after buying an additional 589,832 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Altria Group by 2.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,803,759 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,079,919,000 after buying an additional 1,003,605 shares during the last quarter. National Pension Service grew its stake in shares of Altria Group by 19.9% during the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 4,034,414 shares of the company’s stock valued at $205,916,000 after buying an additional 670,858 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 1.2% in 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on MO shares. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on 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. Bank of America raised shares of Altria Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $55.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com raised shares of Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on shares of Altria Group from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $53.29.

Altria Group Price Performance

Shares of Altria Group stock opened at $53.90 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $91.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.23, a PEG ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.64. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $53.02 and its two-hundred day moving average is $52.52. Altria Group, Inc. has a 1 year low of $39.25 and a 1 year high of $58.03.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The company reported $1.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.28 by $0.01. Altria Group had a net margin of 46.90% and a negative return on equity of 258.72%. On average, equities analysts expect that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Altria Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 26th were given a $1.02 dividend. This represents a $4.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 26th. Altria Group’s payout ratio is 62.29%.

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.