Altria Group (NYSE:MO) Stock Price Down 0.5%

Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)’s share price fell 0.5% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $40.73 and last traded at $40.76. 1,651,923 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 86% from the average session volume of 11,569,462 shares. The stock had previously closed at $40.95.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MO has been the subject of a number of research reports. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 target price on shares of Altria Group in a research note on Monday, March 25th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Altria Group from $36.10 to $36.50 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $46.90.

Altria Group Stock Performance

The firm’s 50 day moving average is $41.84 and its 200-day moving average is $41.43. The firm has a market cap of $70.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.65.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $1.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.17 by $0.01. Altria Group had a net margin of 33.21% and a negative return on equity of 244.55%. The business had revenue of $5.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.06 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.18 EPS. Altria Group’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.09 EPS for the current year.

Altria Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Investors of record on Monday, March 25th will be paid a $0.98 dividend. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.54%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 22nd. Altria Group’s payout ratio is presently 85.78%.

Altria Group announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, February 1st that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 1.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MO. Sei Investments Co. raised its holdings in Altria Group by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 404,894 shares of the company’s stock worth $21,248,000 after acquiring an additional 6,324 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Altria Group by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 18,647 shares of the company’s stock worth $974,000 after acquiring an additional 929 shares during the period. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P bought a new position in Altria Group in the 1st quarter worth $25,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its holdings in Altria Group by 3.4% in the 1st quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,711,773 shares of the company’s stock worth $141,690,000 after acquiring an additional 89,334 shares during the period. Finally, First Western Trust Bank bought a new position in Altria Group in the 1st quarter worth $498,000. Institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

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.