Ewa LLC Makes New Investment in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Ewa LLC bought a new stake in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 4,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $242,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MO. CWM LLC boosted its holdings in Altria Group by 15.3% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 305,704 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,603,000 after purchasing an additional 40,574 shares during the period. Regal Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Altria Group by 4.2% in the second quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC now owns 251,933 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,476,000 after buying an additional 10,079 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of Altria Group by 2.3% in the third quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 1,456,308 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,330,000 after buying an additional 32,318 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Altria Group by 1.0% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 57,508,314 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,935,224,000 after buying an additional 589,832 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Altria Group by 729.8% during the 3rd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 1,969,262 shares of the company’s stock worth $100,511,000 after acquiring an additional 1,731,932 shares during the period. 57.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Altria Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MO opened at $57.32 on Monday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $53.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $50.54. Altria Group, Inc. has a 1 year low of $39.25 and a 1 year high of $58.03. The firm has a market cap of $97.15 billion, a PE ratio of 9.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 0.63.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.38 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $6.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.33 billion. Altria Group had a net margin of 42.82% and a negative return on equity of 233.80%. Altria Group’s revenue was up 18.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.28 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on MO. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Altria Group from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Altria Group from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Bank of America raised Altria Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $55.00 to $65.00 in a report on Friday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $53.33.

Altria Group 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.