Independent Advisor Alliance Reduces Position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Independent Advisor Alliance reduced its position in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 141,658 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,430 shares during the period. Independent Advisor Alliance’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $7,230,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MO. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 729.8% in the 3rd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 1,969,262 shares of the company’s stock valued at $100,511,000 after buying an additional 1,731,932 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in Altria Group by 3,786.6% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,743,443 shares of the company’s stock valued at $88,985,000 after acquiring an additional 1,698,585 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 25.0% during the second 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 during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 415.4% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 984,285 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,935,000 after purchasing an additional 793,327 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service boosted its position in shares of Altria Group by 19.9% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 4,034,414 shares of the company’s stock valued at $205,916,000 after purchasing an additional 670,858 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MO has been the subject of a number of research reports. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Altria Group from $44.50 to $48.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Altria Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $51.33.

Altria Group Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of Altria Group stock opened at $56.73 on Monday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $51.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $49.73. The stock has a market cap of $96.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 0.64. Altria Group, Inc. has a twelve month low of $39.25 and a twelve month high of $56.84.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.35 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $6.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.33 billion. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 233.80% and a net margin of 42.82%. The company’s revenue was up 18.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.28 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current year.

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.