Marble Harbor Investment Counsel LLC trimmed its position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 9.8% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 7,361 shares of the company’s stock after selling 800 shares during the period. Marble Harbor Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $377,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in shares of Altria Group by 6.3% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 138,762,212 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,099,076,000 after purchasing an additional 8,184,592 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Altria Group by 13.9% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 29,575,700 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,212,604,000 after purchasing an additional 3,606,662 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in shares of Altria Group by 11.0% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 23,370,515 shares of the company’s stock valued at $958,191,000 after purchasing an additional 2,316,587 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its position in Altria Group by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 9,215,736 shares of the company’s stock valued at $377,845,000 after acquiring an additional 87,976 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its position in Altria Group by 40.3% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 8,779,403 shares of the company’s stock valued at $359,957,000 after acquiring an additional 2,521,939 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.65% of the company’s stock.
A number of analysts have weighed in on MO shares. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $56.00 price target on shares of Altria Group in a research report on Friday, April 16th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Altria Group from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, May 17th. Citigroup Inc. 3% Minimum Coupon Principal Protected Based Upon Russell restated a “neutral” rating and set a $46.00 target price on shares of Altria Group in a report on Monday, March 22nd. UBS Group cut Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $46.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, March 16th. Finally, Piper Sandler restated a “buy” rating and set a $57.00 target price on shares of Altria Group in a report on Monday, April 5th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. The company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $51.10.
NYSE:MO traded up $0.30 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $49.72. The company had a trading volume of 51,080 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,224,180. Altria Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $35.83 and a fifty-two week high of $52.59. The business’s fifty day moving average is $49.60 and its two-hundred day moving average is $45.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.41, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market cap of $92.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.21, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.61.
Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 28th. The company reported $1.07 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.04 by $0.03. Altria Group had a return on equity of 215.81% and a net margin of 16.80%. The firm had revenue of $4.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.98 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.09 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 4.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Altria Group, Inc. will post 4.57 earnings per share for the current year.
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 9th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 15th will be given a dividend of $0.86 per share. This represents a $3.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.92%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 14th. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 78.90%.
Altria Group announced that its board has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, January 28th that allows the company to buyback $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 2.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.
About Altria Group
Altria Group, Inc operates as a holding company, which engages in the manufacture and sale of cigarettes in the United States. It operates through the following segments: Smokeable Products, Smokeless Products, and Wine. The Smokeable Products segment comprised of cigarettes manufactured and sold by PM USA and machine-made large cigars and pipe tobacco manufactured and sold by Middleton.
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