GetCoattail Research — The Filing Tape #133. Altria surfaced on an analyst-attention trending screen this week, and the filings reduce its tracked register to a single name: 8 of the 147 superinvestors held the stock at June 30, 2026, totalling 25,350,569 shares — and one holder, GQG Partners, is 25,111,622 of them, 99.1% of the tracked stake. The verified cohort's entire increase is that one holder's increase; the other continuing holders cut 7.1% between them. Insiders have bought exactly once in the parsed record — 1,500 shares in September — and no member of Congress appears in the current trade aggregates.
The Hype
Altria's attention this week is a screen story ahead of a scheduled catalyst. The stock appeared on TipRanks' Trending Stocks screener — a ranking of the names drawing the most analyst attention — where the page lists the company among this week's trending names and flags third-quarter earnings expected on October 29. TipRanks Our price file shows a stock that has already had its move and given some of it back: Altria rose 9.0% in the second quarter, from $65.99 on March 31 to $71.95 on June 30, extended to a 252-session high of $74.92 on July 29, and then eased to $67.35 by October 2 — down 10.1% from that high, down 6.4% from the June 30 close, though still up 16.8% year to date. An earnings date, a trending-screen listing and a pulled-back price: the question the filings can answer is who is actually holding this name, and in what size.
The Tape
For Altria — the one hundred and thirty-third Filing Tape audit — the tape shows a tracked register that is one holder for all practical purposes, a broad market that added shares far faster than it added filers, an insider record containing a single purchase against three sales, an empty Congress register, a two-filing passive 5% register, and a borrow that has fallen by a quarter since June 30 after printing the second-highest reading in its series in July.
| Lens | As of | What the filings show | Direction vs prior period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Superinvestors (13F) | Jun 30, 2026 | 8 holders of 147 tracked managers hold 25,350,569 shares; top holder is 99.1% of the tracked stake | Verified continuing cohort +5.2% vs Q1, all of it one holder; one new holder, no exits |
| All institutions (13F) | Jun 30, 2026 | 2,547 filers; 1,066,521,244 shares; reported value $77,539,656,659 | Filers +106; shares +22.87%; reported value +35.84% |
| Insiders (Form 4) | Oct 2, 2026 | One purchase in the full parsed record; 3 sales across 63 filings | Last 90 days: 1 purchase, 0 sales; last year: 1 purchase, 3 sales |
| Congress | Oct 3, 2026 | No recorded transaction in the combined, House or Senate aggregates | None |
| 13D/G | Apr 29, 2026 | 2 parsed filings (0 SC 13D family, 2 SC 13G family); register maximum 7.5% | Latest filing Apr 29, 2026 prints Vanguard Capital Management at 7.5%, as of Mar 31, 2026 |
| Short interest (FINRA) | Sep 15, 2026 | 39,038,757 shares; 2.34% of shares outstanding; 4.85 days to cover | 24.1% below Jun 30, 2026; 35.3% below the series peak; up 15.7% from a year ago |
Lens 1 — the superinvestors: eight holders, of which one is the register. We track 149 managers whose 13F portfolios we collect from SEC EDGAR — 147 are in the collection (144 at a June 30 period-end, 3 early filers at September 30, none of them holding this name, so there is no period split) — and the June 30, 2026 register for the common stock (CUSIP 02209S103) is 8 distinct managers holding 25,350,569 shares worth $1,823,974,534, long only, with no option rows and no debt rows: 3 are labelled UNCHANGED, 2 DECREASED, 2 INCREASED and 1 is NEW, with no exits. GQG Partners is the register: 25,111,622 shares worth $1,806,782,270 — 99.1% of the tracked stake — at a 3.36% portfolio weight, labelled INCREASED +5.3% (filed August 12, 2026). The other seven holders combined hold 238,947 shares, 0.9% of the cohort: Thomas Russo - Gardner Russo & Quinn (148,603 shares, 0.6% of the cohort, at a 0.12% weight, labelled DECREASED -9.6%), Lee Ainslie - Maverick Capital (50,201 shares, at a 0.03% weight, DECREASED -4.1%), Dodge & Cox Funds (20,500 shares, UNCHANGED), W.H. Reaves & Co. (8,000 shares, at a 0.01% weight, UNCHANGED), Mairs & Power Funds (4,566 shares, INCREASED +0.1%), Yacktman Asset Management (4,200 shares, UNCHANGED) and Atalanta Sosnoff Capital (2,877 shares, the one NEW holder). The quarter's change verifies row by row for all seven continuing holders under two register methods that agree exactly (methodology): those seven held 24,090,885 shares at March 31 and 25,347,692 at June 30 (+5.2%) — and the increase is one holder's. GQG alone went from 23,836,839 to 25,111,622 shares (+1,274,783 shares); the other six continuing holders combined went from 254,046 to 236,070 shares, a cut of 7.1%. The full register reconciles with no residual: 24,090,885 shares at March 31 moving to 25,350,569 at June 30 (the verified 25,347,692, plus the NEW holder's 2,877), a register change of +5.2%. All eight rows imply $71.95, the June 30 close, exactly. 13F figures are as of June 30, 2026, published up to 45 days later.
Lens 2 — institutions: 106 more filers, and 22.87% more shares. At June 30, 2026, 2,547 institutions reported positions, up 106 from 2,441 at March 31 (+4.34%); 2,538 are long. Reported shares rose 22.87% to 1,066,521,244 (+198,499,956 shares), and reported value rose 35.84% to $77,539,656,659, labelled "reported" because the aggregate includes option rows (methodology), in a quarter when the price itself rose 9.0%. Flow counts agree: 1,802 entered, 1,696 exited, net +106, and the by-CUSIP row matches the by-ticker row on every field. The reported value implies $72.70 against a June 30 close of $71.95 (+1.05%).
Lens 3 — insiders: one purchase in the entire parsed record, against three sales. The parsed Form 4 record holds 63 filings through October 2, 2026, and it contains exactly one purchase transaction: 1,500 shares for $101,430, by one buyer, in the last 90 days — the site aggregate dates the last buy to September 9, 2026 — and no officer purchase at any point in the record. Sales run the other way, barely: 3 sales in the full record, 35,698 shares for $2,449,154.10, by 3 sellers (one of them an officer sale), all of them inside the one-year window; the last 90 days hold no sale at all, and the one-year window holds 32 filings against the 90 days' single filing. The purchase implies $67.62 per share and the sales $68.61, both inside their windows' close ranges on our price file — this lens's prices reconcile in every window (methodology). The site's insider aggregate agrees with the full parse on the 90-day window in every field.
Lens 4 — Congress: no row in any aggregate. The combined record (as of October 3, 2026), the House aggregate (as of October 3, 2026) and the Senate aggregate (as of October 1, 2026) each carry no row for this name: no member of either chamber has a recorded transaction in Altria in the aggregates. That is the whole of this lens.
Lens 5 — the 5% register: 2 filings, every one of them passive, maximum 7.5%. Our full parse holds 2 SC 13D/G filings matching the site aggregate — 0 SC 13D family and 2 SC 13G family (1 SC 13G, 1 SC 13G/A); 1 amendment, 2 reporter names across 2 reporter rows. The maximum is 7.5%: Vanguard Capital Management printed 125,533,942 shares at 7.5% as of March 31, 2026 (filed April 29, 2026, SC 13G) — the register's latest filing. The other print is The Vanguard Group at 0 shares and 0.0% as of March 13, 2026 (filed March 26, 2026, SC 13G/A).
Lens 6 — short interest: the second-highest print in the series came in July, and the borrow has since fallen by a quarter. The latest FINRA settlement, September 15, 2026, records 39,038,757 shares sold short — 2.34% of the 1,669,743,926 shares outstanding — at 4.85 days to cover, down 6.11% from the prior settlement. The series peak across all 137 settlements is 60,344,258 shares on March 28, 2024, and the latest reading sits 35.3% below it; the path since is the story. The borrow built through the spring of 2026 to 53,134,147 shares on July 15, 2026 — the second-highest reading in the series — and has since fallen 26.5% to the latest print, and 24.1% from the June 30, 2026 settlement (51,448,610), while still standing 15.7% above the year-ago settlement (33,727,999 on September 15, 2025). The recent path runs 51,448,610 (June 30), 53,134,147 (July 15), 50,769,586 (July 31), 40,563,757 (August 14), 41,579,040 (August 31) and 39,038,757 (September 15) — three falls and two rises across the six settlements. The series minimum is 10,465,997 shares (November 30, 2021). The series is published as collected, including the one step this audit cannot explain (methodology).
The Gap
The narrative arriving this week is a routine one: a defensive name on an analyst-attention screen, with a quarterly earnings date on October 29 and a price 10.1% below its July high. The June tape describes a register with almost no breadth behind it. The tracked cohort's headline — eight holders, +5.2% — is one holder: GQG Partners is 99.1% of the tracked stake, its +1,274,783-share increase is larger than the cohort's entire verified increase, and the other six continuing holders cut 7.1% between them; the remaining seven names on the register hold 238,947 shares combined. The broad market genuinely broadened — 106 more filers and 22.87% more shares — but that is the full 13F universe, not the tracked cohort. Inside the company, the record is nearly empty in both directions: one purchase ever, of 1,500 shares in September, no officer purchase ever, three sales in a year, and no congressional trade in any aggregate. The 5% register holds two passive Vanguard prints, its maximum 7.5%. And the borrow, which built to the second-highest reading in its five-year series in July, has been unwinding for two months. One plausible reading is that what attention Altria is getting sits on top of a filing record whose only decisive tracked-holder act this year belongs to a single fund — and that any change in that one position, in either direction, would rewrite this register wholesale.
What Would Change the Picture
Nothing above is a recommendation. These filings would change it:
- 1. The 2026Q3 13F season (filing window closing mid-November 2026). GQG Partners' verified baseline is 25,111,622 shares — 99.1% of the tracked total. Whether that position is held, added to or cut decides this lens by itself; a second holder rising above even 1% of the cohort would also change the register's shape.
- 2. A second insider purchase, or a first officer purchase. The record holds 1 purchase in 63 filings — 1,500 shares, by a non-officer — and 3 sales. A second recorded purchase, or any purchase by an officer, would change this lens.
- 3. A first Congress row. No member of either chamber appears in the aggregates. A transaction from any member would change this lens.
- 4. A first SC 13D filing, or a new 5% print above 7.5%. Both filings in this register are 13G-family filings. A first activist-form filing, or any print above Vanguard Capital Management's 7.5% maximum, would change this lens.
- 5. Short interest back above the July print, or a continued unwind. The borrow stands at 39,038,757 shares, 26.5% below the July 15, 2026 reading of 53,134,147 and 35.3% below the series peak. A reading above 53,134,147 would be the highest since March 2024; a reading below the recent path would extend a two-month unwind.
Related reading: Eighteen of 147: Berkshire Hathaway Is 90.9% of the Superinvestors' Chevron Stake — and It Did Not Move. Its Insiders Have Never Bought. — Filing Tape #132; Twenty-One of 147: Bill Nygren - Oakmark Funds Is 53.6% of the Superinvestors' June-Quarter Merck Stake. Its Insiders Have Bought Twice. — Filing Tape #131. Altria's own page: Altria (MO) on GetCoattail.
Methodology and data notes
- As-of & limits: The lenses rest on different clocks, none live: 13F is a June 30, 2026 snapshot published up to 45 days later; Form 4 runs through October 2, 2026; Congress aggregates run through October 3, 2026 (Senate through October 1, 2026); 13D/G through April 29, 2026; short interest through September 15, 2026; the price file ends October 2, 2026. Five limits are specific to this audit. First, the roster expanded before the recent audits — from 85 managers (83 filing) to 149 (147 filing) — so "of 147" counts are not comparable to earlier pieces' "of 83" figures. Second, this name carries no period split: all eight tracked holders sit on a June 30, 2026 period-end and none of the three September 30, 2026 early filers holds this name, so every tracked figure here is a single-date figure. Third, the insider record is thin by count — 63 filings, 4 open-market transactions in total — so this audit cites the full record rather than rates: with one purchase and three sales, no window ratio would mean anything, and the September 9, 2026 last-buy date comes from the site insider aggregate (as of October 19, 2026), whose 90-day counts and amounts match the full parse exactly. Fourth, the short-interest series contains one step this audit cannot explain: a 4.153x rise at the March 28, 2024 settlement (14,530,929 to 60,344,258 shares) with no split or revision flag; the borrow stayed elevated for months afterwards (48,022,125 shares at the next settlement) before decaying, the series is published as collected, and the series peak cited in this audit is that settlement's print. Fifth, our price file begins June 1, 2021, so every price statement in this audit is mechanical, a date and a close from that file. The TipRanks trending listing (accessed October 20, 2026) postdates the 13F snapshot and the short-interest series; none of its figures are cited here beyond the listing itself and the October 29 earnings date it flags, reported as screen content in The Hype; every price figure here is from our own price file.
- Market context sources: the TipRanks Trending Stocks screener (accessed October 20, 2026), on which Altria appeared among the trending names, with third-quarter earnings flagged as expected on October 29. Figures we could not confirm were left out; the external items above are reported speech from that outlet, not GetCoattail measurements.
- Altria is in the GetCoattail stock-page universe: Altria (MO) stock page. Series data: mo_lens_data.csv · mo_short_interest_series.csv. Earlier audits: KLA · Vulcan Materials.
Past patterns are not a promise of future results. For education only — not investment advice.
This article describes public filings as of the dates stated. It is not investment advice and makes no recommendation. Filings lag reality: 13F positions are as of June 30, 2026, and later trading is not yet public.
Revision history: v1.0 — October 20, 2026: first publication.