Altria Group (NYSE:MO) Shares Up 0.1% After Analyst Upgrade

Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO - Get Free Report)'s stock price shot up 0.1% on Friday after Barclays raised their price target on the stock from $46.00 to $49.00. Barclays currently has an underweight rating on the stock. Altria Group traded as high as $59.52 and last traded at $59.39. 1,569,851 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 84% from the average session volume of 9,585,837 shares. The stock had previously closed at $59.31.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on MO. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Altria Group from $60.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday. StockNews.com lowered shares of Altria Group from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Altria Group from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $60.00 target price on Altria Group in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on Altria Group from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a "sell" rating in a report on Wednesday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $56.00.

Institutional Trading of Altria Group

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MO. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Altria Group by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 59,805,286 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,127,218,000 after purchasing an additional 2,296,972 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Altria Group by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 41,938,507 shares of the company's stock worth $2,193,687,000 after purchasing an additional 1,134,748 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in Altria Group by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 22,273,491 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,164,681,000 after buying an additional 76,004 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 9.6% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 16,432,535 shares of the company's stock worth $859,257,000 after buying an additional 1,444,021 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 9.1% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 11,801,958 shares of the company's stock worth $617,124,000 after buying an additional 983,328 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 57.41% of the company's stock.

Altria Group Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $100.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.54. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $57.61 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $54.88.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The company reported $1.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.04. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 258.72% and a net margin of 46.90%. The firm had revenue of $4.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.15 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.32 EPS for the current year.

Altria Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 25th were issued a dividend of $1.02 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 25th. This represents a $4.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.85%. Altria Group's dividend payout ratio is currently 68.34%.

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.