In the latest trading session, Altria (MO) closed at $57.89, marking a +1.35% move from the previous day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 4.84%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 3.98%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 5.97%.
Shares of the owner of Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest cigarette maker witnessed a gain of 2.09% over the previous month, trailing the performance of the Consumer Staples sector with its gain of 5.4% and outperforming the S&P 500's loss of 4.7%.
Market participants will be closely following the financial results of Altria in its upcoming release. The company plans to announce its earnings on April 29, 2025. It is anticipated that the company will report an EPS of $1.19, marking a 3.48% rise compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $4.66 billion, showing a 1.11% drop compared to the year-ago quarter.
In terms of the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates predict earnings of $5.32 per share and a revenue of $20.44 billion, indicating changes of +3.91% and -0.03%, respectively, from the former year.
Additionally, investors should keep an eye on any recent revisions to analyst forecasts for Altria. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To exploit this, we've formed the Zacks Rank, a quantitative model that includes these estimate changes and presents a viable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, there's been no change in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. Altria is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Digging into valuation, Altria currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 10.74. This expresses no noticeable deviation compared to the average Forward P/E of 10.74 of its industry.
It is also worth noting that MO currently has a PEG ratio of 3.04. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. As of the close of trade yesterday, the Tobacco industry held an average PEG ratio of 2.85.
The Tobacco industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 52, which puts it in the top 21% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Remember to apply Zacks.com to follow these and more stock-moving metrics during the upcoming trading sessions.
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Altria Group, Inc. (MO): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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