Gray Wealth Management Inc. Sells 2,614 Shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Gray Wealth Management Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 11.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 20,818 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,614 shares during the period. Gray Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $840,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P bought a new stake in Altria Group in the first quarter valued at about $25,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Altria Group in the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Nemes Rush Group LLC raised its position in shares of Altria Group by 103.2% in the 3rd quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 636 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 323 shares during the period. ZRC Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Altria Group by 67.6% during the fourth quarter. ZRC Wealth Management LLC now owns 677 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 273 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Altria Group by 1,800.0% during the third quarter. Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. now owns 703 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 666 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MO has been the topic of a number of research reports. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $36.10 to $36.50 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 target price on shares of Altria Group in a research report on Monday, March 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $46.90.

Altria Group Stock Performance

NYSE:MO traded up $0.20 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $41.30. The stock had a trading volume of 14,718,352 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,693,406. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $41.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.43. The stock has a market cap of $70.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.03, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.65. Altria Group, Inc. has a twelve month low of $39.06 and a twelve month high of $48.04.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.17 by $0.01. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 244.55% and a net margin of 33.21%. The business had revenue of $5.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.06 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.18 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Altria Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 25th will be given a dividend of $0.98 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 22nd. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.49%. Altria Group’s payout ratio is presently 85.78%.

Altria Group announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, February 1st that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to purchase up to 1.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.