Altria Group Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:MO)

Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Stock traders bought 46,157 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 41% compared to the average daily volume of 32,746 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Altria Group from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Citigroup boosted their price target on Altria Group from $44.50 to $48.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Barclays boosted their price target on Altria Group from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. 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. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $48.20.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MO. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. raised its stake in Altria Group by 1.5% during the first quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 3,754,522 shares of the company’s stock valued at $163,772,000 after buying an additional 54,096 shares in the last quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Altria Group by 6.3% during the first quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC now owns 41,823 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,824,000 after buying an additional 2,471 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its stake in Altria Group by 56.3% during the first quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 32,685 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,426,000 after buying an additional 11,779 shares in the last quarter. Teamwork Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in Altria Group by 6.9% during the first quarter. Teamwork Financial Advisors LLC now owns 10,715 shares of the company’s stock valued at $467,000 after buying an additional 689 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Everett Harris & Co. CA raised its stake in Altria Group by 6.1% during the first quarter. Everett Harris & Co. CA now owns 16,800 shares of the company’s stock valued at $733,000 after buying an additional 966 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Altria Group Stock Up 7.8 %

Shares of NYSE MO traded up $3.92 on Thursday, hitting $54.42. The company had a trading volume of 13,925,505 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,842,921. Altria Group has a 12-month low of $39.25 and a 12-month high of $54.95. The business has a 50 day moving average of $51.34 and a two-hundred day moving average of $48.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $92.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.27, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.65.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported $1.31 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $6.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.39 billion. Altria Group had a net margin of 42.25% and a negative return on equity of 232.55%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.31 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Altria Group will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 10th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a $1.02 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $4.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.50%. This is an increase from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 70.34%.

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.