Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. Trims Holdings in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. lowered its position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO - Free Report) by 52.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 29,791 shares of the company's stock after selling 33,253 shares during the quarter. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc.'s holdings in Altria Group were worth $1,521,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MO. CWM LLC raised its stake in Altria Group by 15.3% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 305,704 shares of the company's stock valued at $15,603,000 after purchasing an additional 40,574 shares in the last quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 4.2% in the 2nd quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC now owns 251,933 shares of the company's stock worth $11,476,000 after buying an additional 10,079 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its position in shares of Altria Group by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 1,456,308 shares of the company's stock valued at $74,330,000 after buying an additional 32,318 shares in the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 729.8% during the 3rd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 1,969,262 shares of the company's stock worth $100,511,000 after acquiring an additional 1,731,932 shares during the last quarter. Finally, White Lighthouse Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in Altria Group in the third quarter valued at $483,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.41% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Citigroup increased their price objective on Altria Group from $44.50 to $48.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a "sell" rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. StockNews.com raised shares of Altria Group from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Altria Group from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Altria Group from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $51.33.

Altria Group Trading Up 1.0 %

MO traded up $0.54 on Friday, hitting $55.93. 8,174,394 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 9,779,131. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $51.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $49.13. Altria Group, Inc. has a one year low of $39.25 and a one year high of $56.32. The firm has a market cap of $94.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.46, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.64.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.35 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $6.26 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.33 billion. Altria Group had a net margin of 42.82% and a negative return on equity of 233.80%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 18.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.28 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a dividend of $1.02 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $4.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.29%. This is a positive change from Altria Group's previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. Altria Group's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 68.92%.

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.