Intelligence Driven Advisers LLC Acquires 435 Shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Intelligence Driven Advisers LLC grew its holdings in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 8.8% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 5,391 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 435 shares during the quarter. Intelligence Driven Advisers LLC’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $275,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC grew its position in Altria Group by 729.8% during the third quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 1,969,262 shares of the company’s stock worth $100,511,000 after buying an additional 1,731,932 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 3,786.6% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,743,443 shares of the company’s stock worth $88,985,000 after purchasing an additional 1,698,585 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 1,299,703 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its position in shares of Altria Group by 415.4% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 984,285 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,935,000 after purchasing an additional 793,327 shares during the period. Finally, National Pension Service raised its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 19.9% during the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 4,034,414 shares of the company’s stock worth $205,916,000 after buying an additional 670,858 shares in the last quarter. 57.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on MO. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $57.00 to $53.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on Altria Group from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Altria Group from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $44.50 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Altria Group from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “sell” 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 issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $51.33.

Altria Group Price Performance

Shares of MO stock traded down $0.16 on Thursday, reaching $55.09. 962,256 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,758,160. Altria Group, Inc. has a one year low of $39.25 and a one year high of $55.40. The company has a market cap of $93.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.33, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a 50-day moving average of $51.52 and a 200-day moving average of $49.09.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.38 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 firm had revenue of $6.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.33 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.28 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.11 EPS for the current year.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a $1.02 dividend. This represents a $4.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.41%. This is a positive change from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.