Howard Financial Services LTD. Purchases 396 Shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Howard Financial Services LTD. grew its position in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 6.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 6,232 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 396 shares during the period. Howard Financial Services LTD.’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $318,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in Altria Group by 1.6% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 12,355,509 shares of the company’s stock worth $562,793,000 after acquiring an additional 191,236 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in shares of Altria Group by 120.6% in the 1st quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 8,762,047 shares of the company’s stock worth $382,201,000 after purchasing an additional 4,789,788 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Altria Group by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,060,589 shares of the company’s stock worth $230,510,000 after buying an additional 243,201 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management increased its position in Altria Group by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 4,888,137 shares of the company’s stock valued at $222,655,000 after buying an additional 215,594 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Altria Group Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of MO stock opened at $49.65 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $51.55 and a 200-day moving average price of $47.45. Altria Group, Inc. has a 52 week low of $39.06 and a 52 week high of $54.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $85.28 billion, a PE ratio of 10.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 0.65.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last posted 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%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.31 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th will be paid a $1.02 dividend. This represents a $4.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 16th. This is a boost from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio is 85.36%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MO has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Barclays increased their target price on Altria Group from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Altria Group from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Altria Group from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Altria Group currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $50.17.

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.