Altria (MO) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know

In the latest trading session, Altria (MO) closed at $42.90, marking a +0.94% move from the previous day. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.2% loss on the day. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.14%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.12%.

Heading into today, shares of the owner of Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest cigarette maker had lost 4.64% over the past month, lagging the Consumer Staples sector's loss of 4.15% and the S&P 500's loss of 3.29% in that time.

Altria will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be October 27, 2022. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.31, up 7.38% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $5.65 billion, up 2.15% from the year-ago period.

MO's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $4.86 per share and revenue of $20.86 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +5.42% and -1.21%, respectively.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Altria. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.11% higher within the past month. Altria is currently a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

Digging into valuation, Altria currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 8.75. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 8.76, so we one might conclude that Altria is trading at a discount comparatively.

It is also worth noting that MO currently has a PEG ratio of 1.46. 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 industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.13 as of yesterday's close.

The Tobacco industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 198, putting it in the bottom 22% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. 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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