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The latest trading session saw Altria (MO) ending at $52.38, denoting a -0.42% adjustment from its last day's close. The stock's performance was ahead of the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.11%. On the other hand, the Dow registered a loss of 0.77%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq decreased by 1.49%.
The the stock of owner of Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest cigarette maker has fallen by 8.76% in the past month, lagging the Consumer Staples sector's loss of 4.46% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.4%.
Investors will be eagerly watching for the performance of Altria in its upcoming earnings disclosure. On that day, Altria is projected to report earnings of $1.28 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 8.47%. In the meantime, our current consensus estimate forecasts the revenue to be $5.04 billion, indicating a 0.29% growth compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year.
Regarding the entire year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates forecast earnings of $5.12 per share and revenue of $20.38 billion, indicating changes of +3.43% and -0.61%, respectively, compared to the previous year.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Altria should also be noted by investors. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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.
The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.2% higher. At present, Altria boasts a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
With respect to valuation, Altria is currently being traded at a Forward P/E ratio of 10.27. This indicates no noticeable deviation in contrast to its industry's Forward P/E of 10.27.
We can additionally observe that MO currently boasts a PEG ratio of 2.9. The PEG ratio is akin to the commonly utilized P/E ratio, but this measure also incorporates the company's anticipated earnings growth rate. As the market closed yesterday, the Tobacco industry was having an average PEG ratio of 2.52.
The Tobacco industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This industry, currently bearing a Zacks Industry Rank of 217, finds itself in the bottom 14% echelons of all 250+ industries.