Banco Santander S.A. Buys New Position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Banco Santander S.A. purchased a new position in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 186,642 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,526,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MO. Covestor Ltd increased its position in shares of Altria Group by 33.4% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,047 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 262 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its position in Altria Group by 45.5% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 65,405 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,854,000 after acquiring an additional 20,438 shares in the last quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Altria Group by 9.2% in the first quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 37,277 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,626,000 after acquiring an additional 3,151 shares in the last quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in Altria Group in the 1st quarter valued at about $932,000. Finally, LRI Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Altria Group during the 1st quarter valued at about $381,000. 57.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on MO shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Altria Group from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Altria Group from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted 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 investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $51.33.

Altria Group Price Performance

NYSE MO opened at $56.06 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $95.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $51.79 and a 200-day simple moving average of $49.56. Altria Group, Inc. has a 52-week low of $39.25 and a 52-week high of $56.55.

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