Howe & Rusling Inc. Has $675,000 Stock Position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Howe & Rusling Inc. cut its position in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 85.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,734 shares of the company’s stock after selling 101,338 shares during the quarter. Howe & Rusling Inc.’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $675,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of MO. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in Altria Group by 4,665.6% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 3,972,259 shares of the company’s stock worth $160,241,000 after acquiring an additional 3,888,907 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Altria Group by 54.1% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,710,670 shares of the company’s stock valued at $198,084,000 after buying an additional 1,653,455 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Altria Group by 17.0% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 9,259,451 shares of the company’s stock valued at $373,526,000 after buying an additional 1,343,094 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Altria Group by 305,996.5% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,316,215 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,347,000 after buying an additional 1,315,785 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Altria Group in the fourth quarter valued at $525,810,000. 57.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on MO shares. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 price objective on shares of Altria Group in a research note on Monday, March 25th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Altria Group from $36.10 to $36.50 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, April 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $46.90.

Altria Group Price Performance

Shares of Altria Group stock opened at $43.82 on Thursday. Altria Group, Inc. has a 1 year low of $39.06 and a 1 year high of $47.71. The firm has a market cap of $75.27 billion, a PE ratio of 9.17, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.66. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $42.39 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.49.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.15. The business had revenue of $4.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.71 billion. Altria Group had a net margin of 34.81% and a negative return on equity of 222.80%. Altria Group’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.18 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Altria Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 25th were issued a $0.98 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 22nd. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.95%. Altria Group’s payout ratio is 82.01%.

Altria Group announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, February 1st that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to purchase up to 1.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.