Altria Group (NYSE:MO) Upgraded to Buy at StockNews.com

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) was upgraded by investment analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Monday.

Several other research firms have also commented on MO. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on Altria Group from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Altria Group from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. UBS Group raised their price objective on Altria Group from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Bank of America cut their price objective on Altria Group from $57.00 to $53.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on Altria Group from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Two equities 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $51.17.

Altria Group Stock Performance

Shares of MO traded up $0.01 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $53.88. The stock had a trading volume of 7,670,370 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,897,328. The firm has a market cap of $91.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.10, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.64. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $51.44 and its 200 day simple moving average is $48.57. Altria Group has a 12-month low of $39.25 and a 12-month high of $54.95.

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

Institutional Trading of Altria Group

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of MO. CWM LLC grew its stake in Altria Group by 15.3% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 305,704 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,603,000 after purchasing an additional 40,574 shares in the last quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Altria Group by 4.2% in the second quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC now owns 251,933 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,476,000 after purchasing an additional 10,079 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its stake in Altria Group by 2.3% in the third quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 1,456,308 shares of the company’s stock worth $74,330,000 after purchasing an additional 32,318 shares in the last quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Altria Group by 7.2% in the first quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,953 shares of the company’s stock worth $260,000 after purchasing an additional 399 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bahl & Gaynor Inc. grew its stake in Altria Group by 1.6% in the second quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 14,689 shares of the company’s stock worth $669,000 after purchasing an additional 234 shares in the last quarter. 57.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.