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

Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 32,444 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,003 shares during the period. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $1,656,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. CWM LLC raised its stake in shares of Altria Group by 15.3% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 305,704 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,603,000 after purchasing an additional 40,574 shares during the last quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Altria Group by 4.2% during 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 lifted its stake in shares of Altria Group by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 1,456,308 shares of the company’s stock worth $74,330,000 after acquiring an additional 32,318 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 729.8% in the third quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 1,969,262 shares of the company’s stock valued at $100,511,000 after acquiring an additional 1,731,932 shares in the last quarter. Finally, White Lighthouse Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Altria Group during the third quarter worth about $483,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on MO. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $57.00 to $53.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Citigroup lifted their price target on Altria Group from $44.50 to $48.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. StockNews.com upgraded Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Altria Group from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of Altria Group from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Altria Group has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $51.33.

Altria Group Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of MO stock opened at $55.40 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $93.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.32, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.64. Altria Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $39.25 and a fifty-two week high of $55.62. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $51.52 and a 200-day simple moving average of $49.09.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.35 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $6.26 billion during 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.28 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 10th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were given a dividend of $1.02 per share. This is an increase from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. This represents a $4.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.36%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. Altria Group’s payout ratio 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.