ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. Has $211,000 Stock Holdings in Altria Group, Inc. $MO

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 38.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,597 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,239 shares during the quarter. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $211,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MO. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Altria Group by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 158,117,225 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,490,196,000 after purchasing an additional 1,300,787 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 3,483,487 shares during the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 18,471,846 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew 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 buying an additional 441,083 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Altria Group by 40.0% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 11,961,220 shares of the company’s stock valued at $717,913,000 after acquiring an additional 3,415,237 shares during the period. 57.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on the company. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Altria Group from $57.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Bank of America raised 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 price objective on shares of Altria Group in a research note on Thursday, August 21st. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $49.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Altria Group from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $47.00 to $59.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.11.

Altria Group Price Performance

MO stock opened at $65.70 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $65.19 and a 200 day moving average price of $60.93. Altria Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $48.86 and a fifty-two week high of $68.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $110.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.71, a P/E/G ratio of 3.53 and a beta of 0.55.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $5.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.21 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.31 earnings per share. The business’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. On average, equities analysts expect that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 15th will be given a $1.06 dividend. This represents a $4.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.5%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 15th. This is a boost from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio is 82.01%.

About Altria Group

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.