Coombe Bender & Co LLC Has $225,000 Stake in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Coombe Bender & Co LLC reduced its position in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 78.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 5,571 shares of the company’s stock after selling 19,724 shares during the quarter. Coombe Bender & Co LLC’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $225,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MO. FSC Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Altria Group by 21.3% in the fourth quarter. FSC Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,719 shares of the company’s stock valued at $110,000 after acquiring an additional 477 shares during the last quarter. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Altria Group during the 4th quarter worth approximately $39,000. KPP Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Altria Group during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $3,128,000. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 293.6% during the 3rd quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 55,546 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,336,000 after buying an additional 41,432 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,011,345 shares of the company’s stock worth $40,727,000 after buying an additional 4,789 shares in the last quarter. 57.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Altria Group Stock Performance

NYSE MO traded up $0.09 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $43.91. The company had a trading volume of 2,505,579 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,807,744. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $42.39 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.49. Altria Group, Inc. has a 52 week low of $39.06 and a 52 week high of $47.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $75.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.22, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.66.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.15. The firm had revenue of $4.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.71 billion. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 222.80% and a net margin of 34.81%. The company’s revenue was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.18 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Altria Group announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Thursday, February 1st that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to purchase up to 1.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Altria Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 25th were paid a $0.98 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 22nd. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.93%. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 82.01%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. StockNews.com lowered Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, April 14th. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 price target on shares of Altria Group in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on Altria Group from $36.10 to $36.50 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $46.90.

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.