Altria Group (NYSE:MO) Issues FY24 Earnings Guidance

Altria Group (NYSE:MO - Get Free Report) updated its FY24 earnings guidance on Thursday. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $5.05-$5.17 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $5.08. Altria Group also updated its FY 2024 guidance to 5.050-5.170 EPS.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MO has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Altria Group from $36.10 to $36.50 and gave the stock a sell rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a buy rating and set a $50.00 target price on shares of Altria Group in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Altria Group from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Sunday, April 14th. One investment 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.com, Altria Group has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $46.90.

Altria Group Stock Performance

Altria Group stock traded up $0.62 during trading on Thursday, reaching $43.54. The company had a trading volume of 14,204,733 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,996,659. Altria Group has a 12-month low of $39.06 and a 12-month high of $48.04. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $42.05 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $41.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $74.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.53, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.65.

Altria Group (NYSE:MO - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $1.15. Altria Group had a net margin of 33.21% and a negative return on equity of 244.55%. The business had revenue of $4.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $4.71 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.18 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Altria Group will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 22nd. This represents a $3.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.00%. Altria Group's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 85.78%.

Altria Group declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, February 1st that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to buy up to 1.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company's board believes its shares are 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.