Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC Acquires Shares of 5,787 Altria Group, Inc. $MO

Key Points

• Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC has acquired 5,787 shares of Altria Group, Inc., valued at approximately $347,000, reflecting increasing institutional interest in the company.
• Analysts have raised their price targets for Altria Group, with Barclays setting a new target of $57.00 and Morgan Stanley at $62.00, while UBS upgraded the stock's rating from "sell" to "neutral."
• Altria Group announced a quarterly dividend increase to $1.06 per share, translating to an annual yield of 6.4%, which is a positive move from the previous dividend of $1.02.

Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 5,787 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $347,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Altria Group by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 158,117,225 shares of the company's stock valued at $9,490,196,000 after acquiring an additional 1,300,787 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Altria Group by 5.8% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 63,288,773 shares of the company's stock worth $3,798,592,000 after buying an additional 3,483,487 shares during the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Altria Group by 8,146.4% in the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 18,698,594 shares of the company's stock worth $1,122,290,000 after buying an additional 18,471,846 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Altria Group by 3.7% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 12,243,041 shares of the company's stock worth $734,827,000 after buying an additional 441,083 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of Altria Group by 40.0% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 11,961,220 shares of the company's stock worth $717,913,000 after buying an additional 3,415,237 shares during the last quarter. 57.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on MO. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Altria Group from $49.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Altria Group from $57.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. UBS Group upgraded shares of Altria Group from a "sell" rating to a "neutral" rating and raised their price target for the stock from $47.00 to $59.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Needham & Company LLC upgraded shares of Altria Group to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $72.00 price target on shares of Altria Group in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Altria Group has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $60.88.

Altria Group Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of NYSE:MO opened at $66.26 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $111.31 billion, a PE ratio of 12.82, a P/E/G ratio of 3.56 and a beta of 0.59. The company's 50-day moving average price is $63.01 and its 200 day moving average price is $59.94. Altria Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $48.86 and a fifty-two week high of $68.60.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $1.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.37 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $5.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.21 billion. Altria Group had a net margin of 37.24% and a negative return on equity of 295.26%. Altria Group's quarterly revenue was up .2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.31 EPS. Altria Group has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.350-5.450 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.32 EPS for the current year.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.06 per share. This represents a $4.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 15th. This is a positive change from Altria Group's previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. Altria Group's dividend payout ratio is 78.92%.

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.

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