Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC Has $8.50 Million Stock Position in Altria Group, Inc. $MO

Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC grew its stake in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 8.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 144,895 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 11,697 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $8,495,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Altria Group by 1.0% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,717,148 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,364,216,000 after acquiring an additional 1,599,923 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 3,483,487 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Altria Group by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 44,724,475 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,620,229,000 after purchasing an additional 764,221 shares in the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 8,146.4% in the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 18,698,594 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,122,290,000 after purchasing an additional 18,471,846 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Altria Group by 3.7% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 12,243,041 shares of the company’s stock worth $734,827,000 after purchasing an additional 441,083 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Altria Group Stock Performance

NYSE:MO opened at $58.36 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $97.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.29, a P/E/G ratio of 3.45 and a beta of 0.51. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $62.22 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $61.78. Altria Group, Inc. has a 52-week low of $50.08 and a 52-week high of $68.60.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The company reported $1.45 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.44 by $0.01. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 295.26% and a net margin of 37.24%.The company had revenue of $5.25 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.31 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.38 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. Altria Group has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.370-5.45 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Altria Group declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Thursday, October 30th that allows the company to buyback $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on MO. Stifel Nicolaus set a $72.00 price target on shares of Altria Group in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. Barclays boosted their target price on Altria Group from $49.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Altria Group in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Altria Group from $65.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Altria Group from $57.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. 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. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.33.

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.