Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Has $18.84 Million Stock Holdings in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS trimmed its stake in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO - Free Report) by 3.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 360,368 shares of the company's stock after selling 11,061 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS's holdings in Altria Group were worth $18,844,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Lingohr Asset Management GmbH bought a new stake in shares of Altria Group during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $617,000. Contrarius Group Holdings Ltd acquired a new stake in Altria Group during the fourth quarter worth $2,680,000. Fiduciary Group LLC increased its holdings in Altria Group by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Fiduciary Group LLC now owns 13,778 shares of the company's stock valued at $720,000 after buying an additional 203 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas raised its stake in shares of Altria Group by 136.4% in the 4th quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 2,022,121 shares of the company's stock valued at $105,737,000 after buying an additional 1,166,701 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Generali Investments Management Co LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Altria Group during the 4th quarter valued at about $40,000. 57.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Bank of America raised shares of Altria Group from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the company from $55.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Altria Group from $54.00 to $53.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $53.29.

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Altria Group Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MO traded down $0.92 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $56.73. 10,377,149 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,542,338. Altria Group, Inc. has a twelve month low of $40.65 and a twelve month high of $59.67. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $54.56 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $53.48. The company has a market cap of $95.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.66, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.56.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The company reported $1.29 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.28 by $0.01. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 258.72% and a net margin of 46.90%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Altria Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 25th will be given a dividend of $1.02 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 25th. This represents a $4.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.19%. Altria Group's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 62.29%.

Altria Group Company 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.