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

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) updated its FY 2024 earnings guidance on Thursday. 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 also updated its FY24 guidance to $5.05-$5.17 EPS.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. UBS Group upped their target price on Altria Group from $36.10 to $36.50 and gave the stock a sell rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a buy rating and set a $50.00 price target on shares of Altria Group in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Altria Group from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Sunday, April 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $46.90.

Altria Group Price Performance

MO stock traded up $0.62 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $43.54. 14,204,733 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,996,659. The company has a market cap of $74.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.65. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $42.12 and its 200 day moving average is $41.46. Altria Group has a 12-month low of $39.06 and a 12-month high of $48.04.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.15. The business had revenue of $4.72 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.71 billion. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 244.55% and a net margin of 33.21%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.18 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Altria Group will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Altria Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 9.00%. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 85.78%.

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

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.