WASHINGTON TRUST Co Sells 346 Shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

WASHINGTON TRUST Co lessened its stake in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 3.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 9,120 shares of the company’s stock after selling 346 shares during the period. WASHINGTON TRUST Co’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $368,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 108,222.5% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 18,590,308 shares of the company’s stock valued at $849,763,000 after acquiring an additional 18,573,146 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 84.1% in the 2nd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 5,426,522 shares of the company’s stock valued at $245,823,000 after acquiring an additional 2,478,576 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 6.4% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 36,302,349 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,896,798,000 after acquiring an additional 2,178,596 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 54.1% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,710,670 shares of the company’s stock valued at $198,084,000 after acquiring an additional 1,653,455 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 17,105,285 shares of the company’s stock valued at $781,883,000 after acquiring an additional 1,531,337 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MO has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group reaffirmed a “sell” rating and issued a $36.10 price target on shares of Altria Group in a report on Tuesday, January 23rd. StockNews.com raised shares of Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 price objective on shares of Altria Group in a research report on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $46.82.

Altria Group Stock Up 0.2 %

Altria Group stock traded up $0.08 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $43.74. The stock had a trading volume of 4,355,119 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,716,633. Altria Group, Inc. has a 52-week low of $39.06 and a 52-week high of $48.04. The firm has a market cap of $77.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a fifty day moving average of $41.34 and a 200 day moving average of $41.53.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $1.18 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.17 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $5.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.06 billion. Altria Group had a net margin of 33.21% and a negative return on equity of 244.55%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.18 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.08 EPS for the current year.

Altria Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 25th will be given a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.96%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 22nd. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 85.78%.

Altria Group declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, February 1st that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 1.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.