Altria (MO) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know
In the latest market close, Altria (MO) reached $53.17, with a -1.68% movement compared to the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.07%. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a rise of 0.31%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw an increase of 2.17%.
Shares of the owner of Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest cigarette maker witnessed a gain of 5.81% over the previous month, beating the performance of the Consumer Staples sector with its gain of 4.57% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.92%.
Investors will be eagerly watching for the performance of Altria in its upcoming earnings disclosure. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.36, up 6.25% from the prior-year quarter. At the same time, our most recent consensus estimate is projecting a revenue of $5.32 billion, reflecting a 0.86% rise from the equivalent quarter last year.
For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates project earnings of $5.10 per share and a revenue of $20.34 billion, demonstrating changes of +3.03% and -0.81%, respectively, from the preceding year.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Altria. Such recent modifications usually signify the changing landscape of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
Empirical research indicates that these revisions in estimates have a direct correlation with impending stock price performance. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has witnessed an unchanged state. Altria is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Looking at its valuation, Altria is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 10.6. This denotes no noticeable deviation relative to the industry's average Forward P/E of 10.6.
It is also worth noting that MO currently has a PEG ratio of 3.12. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The average PEG ratio for the Tobacco industry stood at 2.27 at the close of the market yesterday.
The Tobacco industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 23, which puts it in the top 10% of all 250+ industries.
The strength of our individual industry groups is measured by the Zacks Industry Rank, which is calculated based on the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within these groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.
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Altria Group, Inc. (MO) : Free Stock Analysis Report