Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC Sells 775 Shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC reduced its stake in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 6.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 12,241 shares of the company’s stock after selling 775 shares during the quarter. Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $625,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of MO. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Altria Group by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 73,481,686 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,821,831,000 after acquiring an additional 3,910,738 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Altria Group by 1.0% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 57,508,314 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,935,224,000 after purchasing an additional 589,832 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Altria Group by 2.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,803,759 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,079,919,000 after buying an additional 1,003,605 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in Altria Group by 1.6% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 12,355,509 shares of the company’s stock worth $562,793,000 after buying an additional 191,236 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Altria Group by 25.0% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,490,441 shares of the company’s stock worth $295,055,000 after buying an additional 1,299,703 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on MO. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. StockNews.com raised shares of Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Altria Group from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Altria Group from $44.50 to $48.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Altria Group from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Altria Group currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $53.33.

Altria Group Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of MO stock traded down $0.22 on Friday, hitting $54.77. 650,110 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,552,244. The firm has a market capitalization of $92.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 0.63. Altria Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $39.25 and a fifty-two week high of $58.03. The business has a 50-day moving average of $53.51 and a 200 day moving average of $50.74.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $6.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.33 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.28 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 18.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Altria Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 26th will be given a dividend of $1.02 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 26th. This represents a $4.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.45%. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.92%.

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.