Woodline Partners LP Purchases New Position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Woodline Partners LP acquired a new position in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 101,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,322,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Csenge Advisory Group raised its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 29.1% in the fourth quarter. Csenge Advisory Group now owns 54,684 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,859,000 after acquiring an additional 12,320 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp grew its holdings in Altria Group by 27.6% during the 4th quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 2,418,074 shares of the company’s stock worth $126,441,000 after acquiring an additional 523,146 shares in the last quarter. Burford Brothers Inc. increased its position in Altria Group by 40.3% during the 4th quarter. Burford Brothers Inc. now owns 36,951 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,932,000 after purchasing an additional 10,605 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 3,414,856 shares of the company’s stock valued at $178,563,000 after purchasing an additional 39,341 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Impact Partnership Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Altria Group in the 4th quarter worth approximately $920,000. 57.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MO has been the topic of several research reports. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $46.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. UBS Group lifted their price target on Altria Group from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Needham & Company LLC raised Altria Group to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday. Wall Street Zen downgraded Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on Altria Group from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $56.00.

Altria Group Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of MO opened at $59.74 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $100.63 billion, a PE ratio of 9.12, a P/E/G ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.60. Altria Group, Inc. has a 12 month low of $43.83 and a 12 month high of $61.26. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $58.13 and a 200-day moving average price of $55.68.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The company reported $1.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $4.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.64 billion. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 258.72% and a net margin of 46.90%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.15 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.32 EPS for the current year.

Altria Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 10th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th will be given a $1.02 dividend. This represents a $4.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 16th. Altria Group’s payout ratio is currently 68.34%.

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.