Investing in Dividend Stocks: High-yield dividend stocks are favored by investors for their potential to provide substantial income and enhance total return, especially with an anticipated rate cut by the Federal Reserve in late October.
Importance of Total Return: Dividends have historically contributed about 32% of the total return for the S&P 500, with a study showing that dividend stocks delivered an annualized return of 9.18% over the past 50 years, significantly outperforming non-payers.
Highlighted Companies: Notable high-yield dividend stocks include Alexandria Real Estate Equities (6.99%), Altria Group (6.35%), Pfizer (6.93%), UPS (7.64%), and Verizon (6.71%), each with strong market positions and growth potential.
Market Strategies: Companies like UPS are adjusting their strategies to focus on more profitable segments, while others like Pfizer anticipate stable revenues, indicating a trend towards optimizing operations and maintaining dividend reliability.
Wall Street analysts forecast MO stock price to rise over the next 12 months. According to Wall Street analysts, the average 1-year price target for MO is 65.60 USD with a low forecast of 57.00 USD and a high forecast of 72.00 USD. However, analyst price targets are subjective and often lag stock prices, so investors should focus on the objective reasons behind analyst rating changes, which better reflect the company's fundamentals.
6 Analyst Rating
Wall Street analysts forecast MO stock price to rise over the next 12 months. According to Wall Street analysts, the average 1-year price target for MO is 65.60 USD with a low forecast of 57.00 USD and a high forecast of 72.00 USD. However, analyst price targets are subjective and often lag stock prices, so investors should focus on the objective reasons behind analyst rating changes, which better reflect the company's fundamentals.
4 Buy
1 Hold
1 Sell
Moderate Buy
Current: 61.080
Low
57.00
Averages
65.60
High
72.00
Current: 61.080
Low
57.00
Averages
65.60
High
72.00
UBS
Neutral -> Buy
upgrade
$61 -> $63
2026-01-09
Reason
UBS
Price Target
$61 -> $63
AI Analysis
2026-01-09
upgrade
Neutral -> Buy
Reason
UBS upgraded Altria Group to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $63, up from $61. The firm believes the worst of Altria's cigarette volume decline could be behind the company. It expects an improvement in 2026 amid better industry volumes and price investment that could stabilize the company's volume share. UBS cites better earnings visibility for the upgrade.
BofA
Lisa Lewandowski
Buy
downgrade
$66 -> $64
2025-12-19
Reason
BofA
Lisa Lewandowski
Price Target
$66 -> $64
2025-12-19
downgrade
Buy
Reason
BofA analyst Lisa Lewandowski lowered the firm's price target on Altria Group to $64 from $66 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. Entering 2026, the largest unresolved question for staples remains consumption growth and valuations remain dispersed across the group, but "there feels little to get them off the sidelines in '26 until fundamentals signal a greater turning of the tide," the analyst tells investors in a year-ahead note for the consumer staples group.
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UBS
Faham Baig
Neutral
downgrade
$68 -> $61
2025-10-31
Reason
UBS
Faham Baig
Price Target
$68 -> $61
2025-10-31
downgrade
Neutral
Reason
UBS analyst Faham Baig lowered the firm's price target on Altria Group to $61 from $68 and keeps a Neutral rating on the shares. Altria reported better-than-expected cigarette volumes in Q3, driven by the significantly lower priced Basic brand that impacted Smokeable price and mix, which shouldn't intensify price competition, as Altria is likely to remain targeted in its approach to avoid accelerating downtrading, the analyst tells investors in a research note. UBS expects a step- up in the benefit from duty drawbacks that could provide Altria with greater flexibility to deliver mid-single digit EPS growth over three years.
BofA
Lisa Lewandowski
Buy
downgrade
$72 -> $66
2025-10-30
Reason
BofA
Lisa Lewandowski
Price Target
$72 -> $66
2025-10-30
downgrade
Buy
Reason
BofA analyst Lisa Lewandowski lowered the firm's price target on Altria Group to $66 from $72 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. The firm called Altria's Q3 performance "mixed," noting that cigarette sales were in line with expectations, but adding that while cigarette volume declines "eased," it was driven by value brand Basic, and Marlboro's volume drop accelerated quarter-over-quarter as consumers traded down. Overall, BofA noted, Altria lost 6.1pts of oral tobacco share. Despite the price target cut, BofA reiterates its Buy rating due to the stock's "reasonable valuation."
About MO
Altria Group, Inc. operates a portfolio of tobacco products for United States tobacco consumers aged 21+. Its segments include smokeable products and oral tobacco products. The smokeable products segment consists of combustible cigarettes and machine-made large cigars. The oral tobacco products segment includes moist smokeless tobacco (MST) products and oral nicotine pouches. Its wholly owned subsidiaries include manufacturers of both combustible and smoke-free products. In combustibles, it owns Philip Morris USA Inc. (PM USA), and John Middleton Co. (Middleton), which are cigarette manufacturers. Its smoke-free portfolio includes ownership of U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company LLC (USSTC), a global MST manufacturer, Helix Innovations LLC (Helix), a manufacturer of oral nicotine pouches, and NJOY, LLC (NJOY), an e-vapor manufacturer with a commercialized product portfolio. The brand portfolios of its operating companies include Marlboro, Black & Mild, Copenhagen, Skoal, on! and NJOY.
About the author
Emily J. Thompson
Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.
