Altria (MO) closed at $64.84 in the latest trading session, marking a -2.72% move from the prior day. The stock fell short of the S&P 500, which registered a gain of 0.47% for the day. Elsewhere, the Dow saw an upswing of 0.11%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq appreciated by 0.94%.
Heading into today, shares of the owner of Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest cigarette maker had gained 1.26% over the past month, outpacing the Consumer Staples sector's loss of 1.75% and lagging the S&P 500's gain of 2.32%.
The upcoming earnings release of Altria will be of great interest to investors. The company's earnings report is expected on October 30, 2025. The company's upcoming EPS is projected at $1.42, signifying a 2.90% increase compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $5.31 billion, showing a 0.68% drop compared to the year-ago quarter.
Regarding the entire year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates forecast earnings of $5.39 per share and revenue of $20.2 billion, indicating changes of +5.27% and -1.18%, respectively, compared to the previous year.
It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Altria. These latest adjustments often mirror the shifting dynamics of short-term business patterns. Hence, positive alterations in estimates signify analyst optimism regarding the business and profitability.
Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. To capitalize on this, we've crafted the Zacks Rank, a unique model that incorporates these estimate changes and offers a practical rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. Altria currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
With respect to valuation, Altria is currently being traded at a Forward P/E ratio of 12.36. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 12.46, which means Altria is trading at a discount to the group.
We can also see that MO currently has a PEG ratio of 3.61. The PEG ratio is akin to the commonly utilized P/E ratio, but this measure also incorporates the company's anticipated earnings growth rate. As the market closed yesterday, the Tobacco industry was having an average PEG ratio of 3.61.
The Tobacco industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. Currently, this industry holds a Zacks Industry Rank of 95, positioning it in the top 39% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the strength of our separate industry groups by calculating the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks contained within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
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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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