Altria Group (NYSE:MO) Issues FY24 Earnings Guidance

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) issued an update on its FY24 earnings guidance on Thursday morning. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of $5.05-$5.17 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.08. Altria Group also updated its FY 2024 guidance to 5.050-5.170 EPS.

Altria Group Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MO opened at $43.38 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $74.51 billion, a PE ratio of 9.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 0.65. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $42.18 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.46. Altria Group has a fifty-two week low of $39.06 and a fifty-two week high of $48.04.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.15. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 222.80% and a net margin of 34.81%. The business had revenue of $4.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.71 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.18 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Altria Group will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Altria Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 25th will be given a $0.98 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 22nd. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.04%. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 82.01%.

Altria Group declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, February 1st that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 1.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Altria Group Company Profile

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.