In the latest close session, Altria (MO) was up +1.26% at $72.99. The stock's change was more than the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.05%. Elsewhere, the Dow saw an upswing of 0.46%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq depreciated by 0.64%.
Shares of the owner of Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest cigarette maker witnessed a loss of 1.54% over the previous month, trailing the performance of the Consumer Staples sector with its loss of 0.06%, and the S&P 500's gain of 0.61%.
The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Altria in its upcoming release. The company is slated to reveal its earnings on July 30, 2026. The company is predicted to post an EPS of $1.5, indicating a 4.17% growth compared to the equivalent quarter last year. In the meantime, our current consensus estimate forecasts the revenue to be $5.36 billion, indicating a 1.36% growth compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year.
In terms of the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates predict earnings of $5.7 per share and a revenue of $20.55 billion, indicating changes of +5.17% and +2.02%, respectively, from the former year.
Additionally, investors should keep an eye on any recent revisions to analyst forecasts for Altria. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the business outlook.
Empirical research indicates that these revisions in estimates have a direct correlation with impending stock price performance. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, spanning from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), boasts an impressive track record of outperformance, audited externally, with #1 ranked stocks yielding an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.04% higher. Altria is holding a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) right now.
Looking at its valuation, Altria is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 12.65. This denotes no noticeable deviation relative to the industry average Forward P/E of 12.65.
Also, we should mention that MO has a PEG ratio of 2.6. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. As of the close of trade yesterday, the Tobacco industry held an average PEG ratio of 2.25.
The Tobacco industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. At present, this industry carries a Zacks Industry Rank of 215, placing it within the bottom 13% of over 250 industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
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Altria Group, Inc. (MO): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).