First Manhattan CO. LLC. Acquires 7,936 Shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

First Manhattan CO. LLC. lifted its stake in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO - Free Report) by 7.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 119,739 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 7,936 shares during the period. First Manhattan CO. LLC.'s holdings in Altria Group were worth $6,261,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Czech National Bank raised its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 367,469 shares of the company's stock worth $19,215,000 after acquiring an additional 19,893 shares during the last quarter. Csenge Advisory Group lifted its holdings in Altria Group by 29.1% in the 4th quarter. Csenge Advisory Group now owns 54,684 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,859,000 after purchasing an additional 12,320 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp boosted its stake in shares of Altria Group by 27.6% during the 4th quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 2,418,074 shares of the company's stock worth $126,441,000 after purchasing an additional 523,146 shares during the last quarter. Burford Brothers Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Altria Group by 40.3% during the fourth quarter. Burford Brothers Inc. now owns 36,951 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,932,000 after buying an additional 10,605 shares during the period. Finally, XML Financial LLC boosted its position in Altria Group by 40.5% during the fourth quarter. XML Financial LLC now owns 37,370 shares of the company's stock worth $1,954,000 after acquiring an additional 10,781 shares during the last quarter. 57.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MO has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Altria Group from $54.00 to $53.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $60.00 price target on shares of Altria Group in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $60.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. StockNews.com cut Altria Group from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on Altria Group from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a "sell" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $56.00.

Altria Group Stock Performance

NYSE:MO traded down $0.46 on Tuesday, hitting $56.49. 11,346,732 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,611,396. The stock has a market capitalization of $95.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.62, a P/E/G ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.60. The company's 50-day moving average price is $58.06 and its 200 day moving average price is $55.34. Altria Group, Inc. has a 52 week low of $43.83 and a 52 week high of $61.26.

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

Altria Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 25th were given a $1.02 dividend. This represents a $4.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 25th. 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.