Morningstar Investment Management LLC Sells 1,413 Shares of Altria Group, Inc. $MO

Morningstar Investment Management LLC lessened its position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 6.6% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 19,897 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,413 shares during the period. Morningstar Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $1,167,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MO. GQG Partners LLC increased its stake in Altria Group by 8,146.4% in the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 18,698,594 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,122,290,000 after purchasing an additional 18,471,846 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Altria Group in the first quarter valued at approximately $219,141,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Altria Group by 5.8% in 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 purchasing an additional 3,483,487 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Altria Group by 40.0% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 11,961,220 shares of the company’s stock valued at $717,913,000 after purchasing an additional 3,415,237 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. increased its stake in Altria Group by 111.3% in the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 5,558,252 shares of the company’s stock valued at $333,606,000 after purchasing an additional 2,928,006 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on MO shares. Stifel Nicolaus set a $72.00 price objective on shares of Altria Group in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $57.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $49.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $65.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Altria Group in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.11.

Altria Group Trading Down 2.4%

Shares of MO opened at $64.92 on Tuesday. Altria Group, Inc. has a 12 month low of $48.86 and a 12 month high of $68.60. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $65.78 and a 200 day simple moving average of $61.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $109.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.56, a PEG ratio of 3.70 and a beta of 0.55.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.37 by $0.07. Altria Group had a net margin of 37.24% and a negative return on equity of 295.26%. The business had revenue of $5.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.21 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.31 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up .2% on a year-over-year basis. Altria Group has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.350-5.450 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 10th. Investors of record on Monday, September 15th were issued a dividend of $1.06 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 15th. This is a positive change from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. This represents a $4.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.5%. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 82.01%.

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.