North Star Asset Management Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Altria Group, Inc. $MO

North Star Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 10.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 36,598 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,446 shares during the quarter. North Star Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $2,146,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Altria Group by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,717,148 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,364,216,000 after buying an additional 1,599,923 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Altria Group by 5.8% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 63,288,773 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,798,592,000 after acquiring an additional 3,483,487 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Altria Group by 1.7% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 44,724,475 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,620,229,000 after acquiring an additional 764,221 shares during the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC grew its holdings in Altria Group by 8,146.4% in the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 18,698,594 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,122,290,000 after purchasing an additional 18,471,846 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Altria Group by 3.7% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 12,243,041 shares of the company’s stock worth $734,827,000 after purchasing an additional 441,083 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 equities analysts have weighed in on MO shares. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Altria Group from $68.00 to $61.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Bank of America increased their target price on Altria Group from $64.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus set a $72.00 target price on Altria Group in a report on Thursday, August 21st. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Altria Group from $57.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on Altria Group from $49.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.33.

Altria Group Trading Up 1.8%

NYSE:MO opened at $58.36 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $62.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $61.78. Altria Group, Inc. has a twelve month low of $50.08 and a twelve month high of $68.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $97.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.29, a PEG ratio of 3.45 and a beta of 0.51.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The company reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.44 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $5.25 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.31 billion. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 295.26% and a net margin of 37.24%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.38 EPS. Altria Group has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.370-5.45 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Altria Group declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, October 30th that authorizes the company to buyback $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.