Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) Shares Bought by Pittenger & Anderson Inc.

Pittenger & Anderson Inc. increased its position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 833.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 2,800 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,500 shares during the quarter. Pittenger & Anderson Inc.’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $113,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Altria Group by 11.3% in the third quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,934 shares of the company’s stock valued at $125,000 after buying an additional 299 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC grew its stake in Altria Group by 10.0% in the 3rd quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC now owns 9,993 shares of the company’s stock valued at $420,000 after acquiring an additional 905 shares during the last quarter. CX Institutional increased its holdings in Altria Group by 306.4% during the 3rd quarter. CX Institutional now owns 67,227 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,827,000 after acquiring an additional 50,683 shares in the last quarter. Galvin Gaustad & Stein LLC acquired a new position in Altria Group during the third quarter worth about $214,000. Finally, Czech National Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 46.8% in the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 310,165 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,042,000 after purchasing an additional 98,852 shares in the last quarter. 57.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Altria Group Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of MO traded up $0.28 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $43.82. The company had a trading volume of 7,996,573 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,918,290. The stock has a market cap of $75.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.65. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $42.12 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.46. Altria Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $39.06 and a fifty-two week high of $48.04.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.15. The firm had revenue of $4.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.71 billion. Altria Group had a net margin of 33.21% and a negative return on equity of 244.55%. The company’s revenue was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.18 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Altria Group declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, February 1st that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 1.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Altria Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared 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 8.95%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 22nd. Altria Group’s payout ratio is currently 85.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MO has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on shares of Altria Group in a research note on Monday, March 25th. UBS Group raised their price target on Altria Group from $36.10 to $36.50 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, April 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $46.90.

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.