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

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) updated its FY 2024 earnings guidance on Thursday. The company provided earnings per share guidance of 5.050-5.170 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of 5.080. The company issued revenue guidance of -. Altria Group also updated its FY24 guidance to $5.05-$5.17 EPS.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on MO shares. Stifel Nicolaus restated a buy rating and issued a $50.00 target price on shares of Altria Group in a research note on Monday, March 25th. StockNews.com cut shares of Altria Group from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Sunday, April 14th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Altria Group from $36.10 to $36.50 and gave the stock a sell rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $46.90.

Altria Group Trading Down 0.4 %

Altria Group stock traded down $0.17 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $43.37. The stock had a trading volume of 13,793,861 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,018,917. The stock has a market capitalization of $74.49 billion, a PE ratio of 9.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.65. Altria Group has a 12 month low of $39.06 and a 12 month high of $48.04. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $42.12 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.46.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.15. Altria Group had a net margin of 33.21% and a negative return on equity of 244.55%. The company had revenue of $4.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.71 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.18 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Altria Group will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Altria Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 25th will be issued a dividend of $0.98 per share. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 22nd. Altria Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 85.78%.

Altria Group announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, February 1st that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 1.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

About Altria Group

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.