Altria Group (NYSE:MO) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.02 EPS

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The company reported $1.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.36 by $0.02, Briefing.com reports. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 232.55% and a net margin of 42.25%. The firm had revenue of $6.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.33 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.28 EPS. Altria Group’s revenue was up 18.6% on a year-over-year basis. Altria Group updated its FY24 guidance to $5.07-5.15 EPS and its FY 2024 guidance to 5.070-5.150 EPS.

Altria Group Stock Down 1.1 %

MO stock traded down $0.59 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $53.87. 10,985,628 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 9,907,085. Altria Group has a twelve month low of $39.25 and a twelve month high of $54.95. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $51.39 and a 200-day simple moving average of $48.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $91.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.65.

Altria Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 10th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a $1.02 dividend. This represents a $4.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.57%. This is an increase from Altria Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 70.34%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MO has been the topic of several analyst reports. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Altria Group from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Altria Group from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. StockNews.com cut Altria Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Altria Group from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Bank of America dropped their price target on Altria Group from $57.00 to $53.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $51.17.

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.