Sig Brokerage LP Acquires New Stake in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Sig Brokerage LP bought a new position in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm bought 6,200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $324,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Csenge Advisory Group raised its position in Altria Group by 29.1% during the fourth quarter. Csenge Advisory Group now owns 54,684 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,859,000 after purchasing an additional 12,320 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp raised its position in Altria Group by 27.6% during the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 2,418,074 shares of the company’s stock valued at $126,441,000 after purchasing an additional 523,146 shares in the last quarter. Burford Brothers Inc. raised its position in Altria Group by 40.3% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. XML Financial LLC raised its position in Altria Group by 40.5% during the fourth quarter. XML Financial LLC now owns 37,370 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,954,000 after purchasing an additional 10,781 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its position in Altria Group by 1.2% during the fourth 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on MO shares. StockNews.com downgraded Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $60.00 price objective on Altria Group in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Barclays lifted their price objective on Altria Group from $46.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Altria Group from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Altria Group from $60.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $56.00.

Altria Group Stock Performance

Altria Group stock opened at $57.99 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $58.01 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $55.41. The stock has a market cap of $97.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.85, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.60. Altria Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $43.83 and a fifty-two week high of $61.26.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The company reported $1.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $4.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.64 billion. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 258.72% and a net margin of 46.90%. The business’s revenue was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.15 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Altria Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 25th were given a dividend of $1.02 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 25th. This represents a $4.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.04%. Altria Group’s payout ratio is 68.34%.

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.