Walker Asset Management LLC Sells 2,489 Shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Walker Asset Management LLC decreased its position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 14.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,663 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,489 shares during the quarter. Walker Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $748,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in Altria Group by 120.6% during the 1st quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 8,762,047 shares of the company’s stock valued at $382,201,000 after purchasing an additional 4,789,788 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Altria Group by 25.0% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,490,441 shares of the company’s stock valued at $295,055,000 after acquiring an additional 1,299,703 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in Altria Group by 415.4% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 984,285 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,935,000 after acquiring an additional 793,327 shares during the last quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP bought a new position in Altria Group in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $27,613,000. Finally, Distillate Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 182,943.7% in the 2nd quarter. Distillate Capital Partners LLC now owns 569,266 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,930,000 after purchasing an additional 568,955 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have issued reports on MO shares. 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 note on Tuesday, October 8th. UBS Group raised their price target on Altria Group from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Altria Group from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. StockNews.com lowered shares of Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on Altria Group from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Altria Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $48.20.

Altria Group Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of MO traded down $0.03 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $49.77. 1,596,968 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 9,856,050. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $51.46 and its 200 day moving average price is $47.95. The firm has a market cap of $85.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.42, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.65. Altria Group, Inc. has a 12-month low of $39.06 and a 12-month high of $54.95.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last issued its 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 company had revenue of $6.21 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.39 billion. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 232.55% and a net margin of 42.25%. Altria Group’s revenue was up 14.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.31 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were given a dividend of $1.02 per share. 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 8.20%. Altria Group’s payout ratio is 85.36%.

Altria Group 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.