Lafayette Investments Inc. Sells 550 Shares of Altria Group, Inc. $MO

Lafayette Investments Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 5.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 9,188 shares of the company’s stock after selling 550 shares during the quarter. Lafayette Investments Inc.’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $539,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. GQG Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Altria Group by 8,146.4% in the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 18,698,594 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,122,290,000 after acquiring an additional 18,471,846 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Altria Group during the first quarter valued at approximately $219,141,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Altria Group by 5.8% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 63,288,773 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,798,592,000 after purchasing an additional 3,483,487 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of Altria Group by 40.0% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 11,961,220 shares of the company’s stock valued at $717,913,000 after purchasing an additional 3,415,237 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Altria Group by 111.3% in the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 5,558,252 shares of the company’s stock worth $333,606,000 after buying an additional 2,928,006 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on MO. UBS Group upgraded shares of Altria Group from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $47.00 to $59.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Altria Group from $49.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Altria Group in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $50.00 price target on the stock. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Altria Group in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $72.00 target price on Altria Group in a research note on Thursday, August 21st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $62.11.

Altria Group Stock Performance

NYSE MO opened at $64.40 on Tuesday. Altria Group, Inc. has a twelve month low of $48.98 and a twelve month high of $68.60. The stock has a market cap of $108.18 billion, a PE ratio of 12.46, a PEG ratio of 3.62 and a beta of 0.55. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $65.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $61.52.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.37 by $0.07. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 295.26% and a net margin of 37.24%.The firm had revenue of $5.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.21 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.31 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .2% on a year-over-year basis. Altria Group has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.350-5.450 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 10th. Investors of record on Monday, September 15th were given a $1.06 dividend. This represents a $4.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.6%. This is an increase from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 15th. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 82.01%.

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.