Altria Group (NYSE:MO) Issues FY 2024 Earnings Guidance

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) issued an update on its FY 2024 earnings guidance on Thursday morning. The company provided EPS guidance of 5.050-5.170 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of 5.080. The company issued revenue guidance of -.

Altria Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MO opened at $42.92 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $73.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.65. The business has a 50-day moving average of $42.05 and a two-hundred day moving average of $41.45. Altria Group has a 1 year low of $39.06 and a 1 year high of $48.04.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $1.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.17 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $5.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.06 billion. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 244.55% and a net margin of 33.21%. Altria Group’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.18 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Altria Group will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Altria Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 25th will be issued a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.13%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 22nd. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 85.78%.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on MO. StockNews.com cut Altria Group from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Sunday, April 14th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Altria Group from $36.10 to $36.50 and gave the stock a sell rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a buy rating and set a $50.00 target price on shares of Altria Group in a research report on Monday, March 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Altria Group presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target 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.