Heritage Investors Management Corp Sells 22,799 Shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Heritage Investors Management Corp lowered its position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 31.8% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 48,789 shares of the company’s stock after selling 22,799 shares during the quarter. Heritage Investors Management Corp’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $2,490,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in Altria Group by 3,786.6% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,743,443 shares of the company’s stock worth $88,985,000 after purchasing an additional 1,698,585 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in Altria Group by 25.0% in the 2nd 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 raised its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 793,327 shares during the last quarter. National Pension Service raised its position in shares of Altria Group by 19.9% during the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 4,034,414 shares of the company’s stock valued at $205,916,000 after acquiring an additional 670,858 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP bought a new stake in shares of Altria Group during the 1st quarter valued at $27,613,000. Institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on MO. Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of Altria Group from $57.00 to $53.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on shares of Altria Group from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Altria Group from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Altria Group from $44.50 to $48.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $51.17.

Altria Group Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of MO stock opened at $54.18 on Wednesday. Altria Group, Inc. has a 12-month low of $39.25 and a 12-month high of $54.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $92.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 0.64. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $51.47 and a 200-day moving average of $48.66.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.35 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $6.26 billion during 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%. The firm’s revenue was up 18.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.28 EPS. Research analysts expect that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 10th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a $1.02 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. This is a positive change from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. This represents a $4.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.53%. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.92%.

Altria Group Company 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.