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Altria (MO) Stock Moves -1.77%: What You Should Know

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Altria (MO - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $55.53, moving -1.77% from the previous trading session. This move was narrower than the S&P 500's daily loss of 2.77%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 2.82%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.83%.

Coming into today, shares of the owner of Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest cigarette maker had gained 7.68% in the past month. In that same time, the Consumer Staples sector gained 6.29%, while the S&P 500 lost 1.35%.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Altria as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be April 28, 2022. In that report, analysts expect Altria to post earnings of $1.09 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 1.87%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $4.8 billion, down 1.56% from the prior-year quarter.

MO's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $4.83 per share and revenue of $20.87 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +4.77% and -1.16%, respectively.

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.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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 has moved 0.18% lower within the past month. Altria is currently a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

Investors should also note Altria's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 11.71. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 10.72, so we one might conclude that Altria is trading at a premium comparatively.

We can also see that MO currently has a PEG ratio of 2.93. 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. MO's industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.93 as of yesterday's close.

The Tobacco industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 247, which puts it in the bottom 3% 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.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


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