U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC Grows Position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 63.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 282,876 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 109,914 shares during the quarter. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $11,411,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 4,665.6% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 3,972,259 shares of the company’s stock valued at $160,241,000 after purchasing an additional 3,888,907 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Altria Group by 54.1% during the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,710,670 shares of the company’s stock valued at $198,084,000 after purchasing an additional 1,653,455 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Altria Group by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 9,259,451 shares of the company’s stock worth $373,526,000 after buying an additional 1,343,094 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 305,996.5% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,316,215 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,347,000 after buying an additional 1,315,785 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Altria Group during the 4th quarter valued at about $525,810,000. 57.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MO has been the subject of several recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 price target on shares of Altria Group in a research report on Monday, March 25th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Altria Group from $36.10 to $36.50 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, April 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $46.90.

Altria Group Stock Down 0.9 %

Altria Group stock traded down $0.39 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $43.59. The stock had a trading volume of 11,228,966 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,736,930. The firm has a market cap of $74.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.66. Altria Group, Inc. has a 52-week low of $39.06 and a 52-week high of $46.86. The company has a fifty day moving average of $42.50 and a 200 day moving average of $41.51.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.15. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 222.80% and a net margin of 34.81%. The firm had revenue of $4.72 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.71 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.18 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.11 EPS for the current year.

Altria Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 25th were given a dividend of $0.98 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 22nd. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.99%. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 82.01%.

Altria Group declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, February 1st that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 1.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.