State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Purchases 5,104 Shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D increased its position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 0.8% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 622,667 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,104 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $31,781,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MO. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Altria Group during the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Altria Group in the second quarter worth about $30,000. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 63.9% during the second quarter. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. now owns 667 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. Lynx Investment Advisory purchased a new position in shares of Altria Group during the second quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd grew its stake in shares of Altria Group by 33.4% in the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,047 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 262 shares during the last quarter. 57.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Altria Group Stock Performance

Shares of MO stock traded up $0.51 on Friday, reaching $54.05. The stock had a trading volume of 5,712,292 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,669,546. Altria Group, Inc. has a 1 year low of $39.25 and a 1 year high of $55.05. The stock has a market cap of $91.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $51.50 and a 200 day simple moving average of $48.85.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last released its quarterly earnings results 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. 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 the consensus estimate of $5.33 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.28 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 18.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a dividend of $1.02 per share. This represents a $4.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This is a boost from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 68.92%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on MO. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Altria Group from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com raised shares of Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Altria Group from $44.50 to $48.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. UBS Group increased their target price on Altria Group from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on Altria Group from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $51.33.

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.