Mattern Wealth Management LLC Trims Holdings in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Mattern Wealth Management LLC reduced its stake in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 3.5% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 10,876 shares of the company’s stock after selling 400 shares during the period. Mattern Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $555,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BNP Paribas purchased a new stake in shares of Altria Group in the first quarter valued at approximately $27,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Altria Group in the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Altria Group during the second quarter valued at $30,000. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 63.9% in the second quarter. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. now owns 667 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 260 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Riverview Trust Co purchased a new stake in Altria Group in the first quarter worth about $36,000. 57.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on MO shares. 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 report on Tuesday, October 15th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. StockNews.com cut Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Citigroup raised 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. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Altria Group from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $48.20.

Altria Group Stock Performance

MO stock traded up $0.68 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $49.74. The company had a trading volume of 2,116,965 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,898,327. Altria Group, Inc. has a twelve month low of $39.06 and a twelve month high of $54.95. The company has a market cap of $85.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.65. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $51.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $47.88.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported $1.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $6.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.39 billion. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 232.55% and a net margin of 42.25%. The business’s revenue was up 14.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.31 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were given a dividend of $1.02 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. This is a positive change from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. This represents a $4.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.20%. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 85.36%.

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.