8,482 Shares in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) Purchased by Providence Wealth Advisors LLC

Providence Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 8,482 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $421,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. CWM LLC lifted its position in 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 acquiring an additional 40,574 shares during the last quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in Altria Group by 4.2% during the second quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC now owns 251,933 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,476,000 after acquiring an additional 10,079 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lifted its position in Altria Group by 2.3% during the third 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 last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Altria Group by 1.0% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 57,508,314 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,935,224,000 after acquiring an additional 589,832 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Altria Group by 729.8% during the third 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. Institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Barclays raised their price objective 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. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target 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. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Altria Group from $44.50 to $48.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Bank of America dropped 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. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $51.33.

Altria Group Price Performance

Shares of MO opened at $57.65 on Friday. Altria Group, Inc. has a one year low of $39.25 and a one year high of $58.03. The company has a market cap of $97.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.74, a P/E/G ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 0.64. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $52.40 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $50.01.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.38 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.35 by $0.03. Altria Group had a net margin of 42.82% and a negative return on equity of 233.80%. The business had revenue of $6.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.33 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.28 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 18.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.11 earnings per share 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.