Altria Group (NYSE:MO) Posts Earnings Results, Meets Estimates

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) announced its earnings results on Thursday. The company reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.15, Yahoo Finance reports. The firm had revenue of $4.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.71 billion. Altria Group had a net margin of 33.21% and a negative return on equity of 244.55%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.18 EPS. Altria Group updated its FY 2024 guidance to 5.050-5.170 EPS and its FY24 guidance to $5.05-$5.17 EPS.

Altria Group Trading Down 0.2 %

Altria Group stock traded down $0.09 during trading on Thursday, reaching $42.83. The company had a trading volume of 3,298,294 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,845,698. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $42.05 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.45. Altria Group has a 52 week low of $39.06 and a 52 week high of $48.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $73.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.65.

Altria Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 25th will be paid a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.15%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 22nd. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 85.78%.

Altria Group announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, February 1st that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 1.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on MO shares. StockNews.com lowered shares of Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, April 14th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Altria Group from $36.10 to $36.50 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 target price on shares of Altria Group in a report on Monday, March 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $46.90.

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.