Altria (MO) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

Altria (MO) closed the most recent trading day at $50.81, moving +0.99% from the previous trading session. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.08% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.56%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 4.81%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the owner of Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest cigarette maker had gained 5.31% over the past month. This has outpaced the Consumer Staples sector's gain of 4.63% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.64% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Altria as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be January 27, 2022. On that day, Altria is projected to report earnings of $1.09 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 10.1%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $5.06 billion, up 0.02% from the year-ago period.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates 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 company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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.

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 0.29% lower. Altria is currently a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

In terms of valuation, Altria is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 10.49. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 9.88, so we one might conclude that Altria is trading at a premium comparatively.

Investors should also note that MO has a PEG ratio of 2.62 right now. 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. MO's industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.07 as of yesterday's close.

The Tobacco industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 234, putting it in the bottom 9% 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.

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

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