Altria Group price target raised to $55 from $53 at BofA

BofA analyst Lisa Lewandowski raised the firm’s price target on Altria Group (MO) to $55 from $53 and keeps a Neutral rating on the shares. While the firm views the company’s new “Optimize & Accelerate” Initiative intended to save about $600M over the next five years to be spent back to fuel top line growth as a positive given limited progress on achieving the company’s Smoke-free Vision to date, it thinks that yesterday’s stock move of nearly 8% was “more rotation out of other weak staples stocks to relatively steady tobacco equities rather than MO’s 3Q performance and outlook,” the analyst tells investors.