Yahoo Finance Altria (MO) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know
In the latest trading session, Altria (MO) closed at $43.97, marking a +1.17% move from the previous day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.56%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.41%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 1.35%.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the owner of Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest cigarette maker had lost 8.52% over the past month. This has lagged the Consumer Staples sector's loss of 1.86% and the S&P 500's loss of 1.48% in that time.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Altria as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be April 27, 2023. In that report, analysts expect Altria to post earnings of $1.18 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 5.36%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $4.98 billion, up 3.29% from the year-ago period.
For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $5.06 per share and revenue of $21.09 billion, which would represent changes of +4.55% and +1.93%, respectively, from the prior year.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Altria. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-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 benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.03% higher within the past month. Altria currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Digging into valuation, Altria currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 8.58. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 8.21.
It is also worth noting that MO currently has a PEG ratio of 2.15. 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. MO's industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.51 as of yesterday's close.
The Tobacco industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 222, putting it in the bottom 12% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order 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.
To follow MO in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.
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Altria Group, Inc. (MO) : Free Stock Analysis Report
