Capital Investment Advisors LLC Decreases Holdings in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Capital Investment Advisors LLC cut its position in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO - Free Report) by 1.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 585,630 shares of the company's stock after selling 10,687 shares during the period. Capital Investment Advisors LLC's holdings in Altria Group were worth $30,623,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 73,481,686 shares of the company's stock worth $3,821,831,000 after acquiring an additional 3,910,738 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 57,508,314 shares of the company's stock worth $2,935,224,000 after acquiring an additional 589,832 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,803,759 shares of the company's stock worth $2,079,919,000 after acquiring an additional 1,003,605 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 12,355,509 shares of the company's stock worth $562,793,000 after acquiring an additional 191,236 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 25.0% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,490,441 shares of the company's stock worth $295,055,000 after acquiring an additional 1,299,703 shares during the period. 57.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $44.50 to $48.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Altria Group from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $55.00 to $65.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Altria Group from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Altria Group from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Altria Group has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $53.33.

Altria Group Price Performance

Shares of MO traded down $0.03 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $50.84. 5,810,581 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,712,694. Altria Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $39.25 and a fifty-two week high of $58.03. The business has a 50-day moving average of $54.56 and a 200-day moving average of $51.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $86.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.64.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.35 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $6.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.33 billion. Altria Group had a net margin of 42.82% and a negative return on equity of 233.80%. Altria Group's revenue was up 18.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.28 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Altria Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 26th were paid a dividend of $1.02 per share. This represents a $4.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.03%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 26th. Altria Group's dividend payout ratio is presently 68.92%.

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.