Altria Group (NYSE:MO) Earns Equal Weight Rating from Analysts at Morgan Stanley

Investment analysts at Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of Altria Group (NYSE:MO) in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage set an “equal weight” rating and a $54.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target indicates a potential upside of 5.80% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research firms have also commented on MO. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Altria Group from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Altria Group from $44.50 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Altria Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target 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. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $53.43.

Altria Group Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of MO stock opened at $51.04 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $86.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.62, a P/E/G ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.64. Altria Group has a 12-month low of $39.25 and a 12-month high of $58.03. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $54.44 and a 200 day moving average price of $51.92.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $6.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.33 billion. Altria Group had a net margin of 42.82% and a negative return on equity of 233.80%. Altria Group’s quarterly revenue was up 18.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.28 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Altria Group will post 5.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Altria Group

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MO. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Altria Group by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,159,890 shares of the company’s stock valued at $107,679,000 after purchasing an additional 46,697 shares during the period. CWM LLC increased its holdings in Altria Group by 15.3% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 305,704 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,603,000 after purchasing an additional 40,574 shares during the last quarter. Czech National Bank lifted its stake in Altria Group by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 367,469 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,215,000 after buying an additional 19,893 shares during the period. Regal Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Altria Group by 4.2% during the second quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC now owns 251,933 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,476,000 after buying an additional 10,079 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its position in shares of Altria Group by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 1,456,308 shares of the company’s stock worth $74,330,000 after buying an additional 32,318 shares during the period. 57.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.