Altria (MO) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know
In the latest trading session, Altria (MO) closed at $47.53, marking a -0.63% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.75%.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the owner of Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest cigarette maker had lost 4.5% over the past month. This has lagged the Consumer Staples sector's loss of 1.54% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.52% in that time.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from MO as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be July 29, 2021. On that day, MO is projected to report earnings of $1.17 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 7.34%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $5.4 billion, up 6.58% from the year-ago period.
MO's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $4.57 per share and revenue of $21.4 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +4.82% and +2.67%, respectively.
It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for MO. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest 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. 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.
The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. MO is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Looking at its valuation, MO is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 10.39. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 11.35.
Meanwhile, MO's PEG ratio is currently 2.6. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. Tobacco stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.02 based on yesterday's closing prices.
The Tobacco industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 111, which puts it in the top 44% of all 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.
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Altria Group, Inc. (MO) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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