Evelyn Partners Investment Management Europe Ltd Trims Stock Holdings in Altria Group, Inc. $MO

Evelyn Partners Investment Management Europe Ltd lowered its position in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) by 95.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 678 shares of the company’s stock after selling 14,095 shares during the quarter. Evelyn Partners Investment Management Europe Ltd’s holdings in Altria Group were worth $40,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MO. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Altria Group by 1.0% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,717,148 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,364,216,000 after purchasing an additional 1,599,923 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Altria Group by 5.8% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 63,288,773 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,798,592,000 after buying an additional 3,483,487 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Altria Group by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 44,724,475 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,620,229,000 after buying an additional 764,221 shares during the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC raised its position in Altria Group by 8,146.4% during the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 18,698,594 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,122,290,000 after buying an additional 18,471,846 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Altria Group by 3.7% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 12,243,041 shares of the company’s stock valued at $734,827,000 after acquiring an additional 441,083 shares during the period. 57.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MO has been the topic of a number of research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $65.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Stifel Nicolaus set a $72.00 target price on shares of Altria Group in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. Morgan Stanley increased their price target 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. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Altria Group from $68.00 to $61.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Altria Group in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.33.

Altria Group Stock Performance

Shares of Altria Group stock opened at $58.16 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $62.50 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $61.79. Altria Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $50.08 and a fifty-two week high of $68.60. The company has a market cap of $97.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.25, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 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 analyst estimates of $5.31 billion. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 295.26% and a net margin of 37.24%.Altria Group’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.38 EPS. Altria Group has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.370-5.45 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.32 EPS for the current year.

Altria Group declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Thursday, October 30th that allows the company to buyback $2.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Altria Group 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.