Altria Group, Inc. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $1.02 (NYSE:MO)

Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, May 16th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th will be paid a dividend of 1.02 per share on Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $4.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.93%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 16th.

Altria Group has raised its dividend by an average of 4.4% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 56 years. Altria Group has a payout ratio of 73.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Altria Group to earn $5.54 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $4.08 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 73.6%.

Altria Group Trading Up 1.4%

Shares of MO stock opened at $58.87 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $99.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.99, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.60. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $58.02 and a 200-day moving average of $55.50. Altria Group has a 1-year low of $43.83 and a 1-year high of $61.26.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 company had revenue of $4.52 billion during 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 quarterly revenue was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.15 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Altria Group will post 5.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in Altria Group stock. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 64.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 17,702 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,954 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $926,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MO has been the subject of several recent research reports. StockNews.com cut Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. 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. UBS Group raised their target price on Altria Group from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Barclays raised their target price on Altria Group from $46.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on Altria Group from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $56.00.

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.