Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton Raises Stock Position in Altria Group, Inc. $MO

Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton grew its holdings in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 18.9% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,576 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 250 shares during the period. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $92,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in MO. GQG Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Altria Group by 8,146.4% in the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 18,698,594 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,122,290,000 after acquiring an additional 18,471,846 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Altria Group during the 1st quarter worth $219,141,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Altria Group by 5.8% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 63,288,773 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,798,592,000 after buying an additional 3,483,487 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Altria Group by 40.0% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 11,961,220 shares of the company’s stock worth $717,913,000 after buying an additional 3,415,237 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. increased its stake in Altria Group by 111.3% during the 1st quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 5,558,252 shares of the company’s stock worth $333,606,000 after buying an additional 2,928,006 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus set a $72.00 price target on shares of Altria Group in a research note on Thursday, August 21st. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Altria Group in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $50.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Altria Group from $57.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Altria Group in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Altria Group from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $47.00 to $59.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.11.

Altria Group Stock Performance

MO opened at $64.23 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $65.88 and a 200-day moving average of $61.37. The company has a market capitalization of $107.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.42, a PEG ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 0.55. Altria Group, Inc. has a 1-year low of $48.86 and a 1-year high of $68.60.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 analyst estimates of $5.21 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.31 EPS. The company’s quarterly 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, sell-side analysts expect that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 15th were paid a dividend of $1.06 per share. This represents a $4.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 15th. This is a positive change from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.