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Altria (MO) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

In the latest trading session, Altria (MO) closed at $46.20, marking a +0.28% move from the previous day. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.3%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.98%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 7.48%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the owner of Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest cigarette maker had lost 4.16% over the past month. This has lagged the Consumer Staples sector's loss of 1.2% and the S&P 500's loss of 2.95% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Altria as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be April 27, 2023. In that report, analysts expect Altria to post earnings of $1.18 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 5.36%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $4.98 billion, up 3.29% from the year-ago period.

MO's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $5.06 per share and revenue of $21.09 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +4.55% and +1.93%, respectively.

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Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Altria. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. 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.

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 past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.03% higher. Altria is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, Altria is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 9.1. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 8.57, so we one might conclude that Altria is trading at a premium comparatively.

It is also worth noting that MO currently has a PEG ratio of 2.27. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Tobacco was holding an average PEG ratio of 2.67 at yesterday's closing price.

The Tobacco industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 217, putting it in the bottom 14% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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.

To follow MO in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.

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Altria Group, Inc. (MO) : Free Stock Analysis Report

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