Wealth Quarterback LLC Has $713,000 Holdings in Altria Group, Inc. $MO

Wealth Quarterback LLC lifted its stake in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 9.5% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 12,167 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,059 shares during the period. Wealth Quarterback LLC’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $713,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MO. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Altria Group by 0.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 158,117,225 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,490,196,000 after buying an additional 1,300,787 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Altria Group by 5.8% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 63,288,773 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,798,592,000 after acquiring an additional 3,483,487 shares in the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC lifted its position 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 worth $1,122,290,000 after acquiring an additional 18,471,846 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 3.7% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 12,243,041 shares of the company’s stock worth $734,827,000 after purchasing an additional 441,083 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Altria Group by 40.0% during 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 during the period. Institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on MO. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Altria Group in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $57.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Stifel Nicolaus set a $72.00 target price on shares of Altria Group in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Altria Group from $49.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price objective on Altria Group from $68.00 to $61.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 31st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.33.

Altria Group Price Performance

MO stock opened at $58.43 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $63.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $61.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $98.08 billion, a PE ratio of 11.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.45 and a beta of 0.51. Altria Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $50.08 and a fifty-two week high of $68.60.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The company reported $1.45 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.44 by $0.01. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 295.26% and a net margin of 37.24%.The firm had revenue of $5.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.31 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.38 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. Altria Group has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.370-5.45 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 15th were given a dividend of $1.06 per share. This represents a $4.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 15th. This is an increase from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 80.92%.

Altria Group announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Thursday, October 30th that permits the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Altria Group 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.