Savvy Advisors Inc. Takes $267,000 Position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Savvy Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 5,240 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $267,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of MO. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Altria Group by 729.8% during the 3rd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 1,969,262 shares of the company’s stock valued at $100,511,000 after purchasing an additional 1,731,932 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in Altria Group by 3,786.6% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,743,443 shares of the company’s stock valued at $88,985,000 after buying an additional 1,698,585 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Altria Group by 25.0% in 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. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its position in Altria Group by 415.4% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 984,285 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,935,000 after buying an additional 793,327 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service raised its position in 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 during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on MO. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of Altria Group from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com upgraded Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. UBS Group upped their target price on Altria Group from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their target price on Altria Group from $57.00 to $53.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Altria Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $51.33.

Altria Group Stock Up 1.5 %

NYSE:MO opened at $55.23 on Thursday. Altria Group, Inc. has a 52 week low of $39.25 and a 52 week high of $55.40. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $51.51 and its 200-day moving average price is $49.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $93.60 billion, a PE ratio of 9.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.64.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.38 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.35 by $0.03. The company 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%. Altria Group’s quarterly revenue was up 18.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.28 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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 of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This is a boost from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. This represents a $4.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.39%. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.