Altria Group Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:MO)

Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) saw unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Stock investors acquired 61,637 call options on the company. This is an increase of 69% compared to the average volume of 36,540 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Altria Group

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Altria Group by 729.8% in the third quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 1,969,262 shares of the company’s stock worth $100,511,000 after buying an additional 1,731,932 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of Altria Group by 3,786.6% during 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 acquiring an additional 1,698,585 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Altria Group by 25.0% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,490,441 shares of the company’s stock worth $295,055,000 after purchasing an additional 1,299,703 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its holdings in Altria Group by 415.4% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 984,285 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,935,000 after purchasing an additional 793,327 shares during the period. Finally, National Pension Service lifted its holdings in Altria Group by 19.9% in 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 period. Institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MO has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America decreased their target price on Altria Group from $57.00 to $53.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. 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 research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on Altria Group from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $51.33.

Altria Group Stock Performance

Altria Group stock traded up $0.63 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $56.02. 2,598,105 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 9,754,013. Altria Group has a one year low of $39.25 and a one year high of $56.08. The stock has a market cap of $94.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.64. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $51.54 and a 200-day moving average price of $49.13.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $6.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.33 billion. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 233.80% and a net margin of 42.82%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.28 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Altria Group will post 5.11 EPS for the current year.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a dividend of $1.02 per share. 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 dividend yield of 7.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.