In the latest market close, Altria (MO) reached $58.56, with a -0.44% movement compared to the previous day. The stock's performance was behind the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.67%. At the same time, the Dow added 1.07%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 2.5%.
The owner of Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest cigarette maker's stock has climbed by 3.72% in the past month, exceeding the Consumer Staples sector's gain of 3.62% and the S&P 500's loss of 6.57%.
The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Altria in its upcoming release. The company is slated to reveal its earnings on April 29, 2025. The company is predicted to post an EPS of $1.17, indicating a 1.74% growth compared to the equivalent quarter last year. Meanwhile, the latest consensus estimate predicts the revenue to be $4.64 billion, indicating a 1.67% decrease compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
Regarding the entire year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates forecast earnings of $5.28 per share and revenue of $20.36 billion, indicating changes of +3.13% and -0.41%, respectively, compared to the previous year.
Investors should also pay attention to any latest changes in analyst estimates for Altria. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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, which varies between #1 (Strong Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), carries an impressive track record of exceeding expectations, confirmed by external audits, with stocks at #1 delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.68% lower. Altria is currently a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
Digging into valuation, Altria currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 11.14. This valuation marks no noticeable deviation compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 11.14.
We can also see that MO currently has a PEG ratio of 3.43. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. Tobacco stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 3.11 based on yesterday's closing prices.
The Tobacco industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 50, which puts it in the top 21% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank is ordered from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Keep in mind to rely on Zacks.com to watch all these stock-impacting metrics, and more, in the succeeding 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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