Avestar Capital LLC Purchases 698 Shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Avestar Capital LLC lifted its position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 7.8% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 9,623 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 698 shares during the quarter. Avestar Capital LLC’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $491,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its holdings in Altria Group by 10.5% in the first quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 195,097 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,510,000 after purchasing an additional 18,482 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC raised its stake in Altria Group by 57.1% during the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 201,795 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,804,000 after buying an additional 73,310 shares during the last quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp boosted its holdings in Altria Group by 11.7% in the first quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp now owns 57,009 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,487,000 after acquiring an additional 5,973 shares in the last quarter. WealthPlan Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Altria Group by 15.7% in the first quarter. WealthPlan Investment Management LLC now owns 7,637 shares of the company’s stock worth $333,000 after acquiring an additional 1,037 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Independent Wealth Network Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 3.6% during the first quarter. Independent Wealth Network Inc. now owns 18,550 shares of the company’s stock valued at $809,000 after acquiring an additional 637 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on MO. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Bank of America reduced their price target 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. Barclays increased their target price on Altria Group from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Altria Group from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, 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. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Altria Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $51.33.

Altria Group Trading Up 1.5 %

MO opened at $57.58 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $52.11 and its 200 day moving average is $49.90. The company has a market cap of $97.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.73, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 0.64. Altria Group, Inc. has a 12-month low of $39.25 and a 12-month high of $57.60.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.28 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.