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

Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MOGet Free Report) 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.

View Our Latest Report on MO

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:MOGet Free Report) 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

(Get Free Report)

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.

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