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

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Altria (MO - Free Report) closed at $43.09 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.75% move from the prior day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.93%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.43%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.14%.

Heading into today, shares of the owner of Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest cigarette maker had gained 0.61% over the past month, lagging the Consumer Staples sector's gain of 2.29% and the S&P 500's gain of 6.31% 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 July 28, 2022. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.25, up 1.63% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $5.4 billion, down 3.88% from the year-ago period.

MO's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $4.83 per share and revenue of $20.83 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +4.77% and -1.32%, 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. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.18% lower within the past month. Altria currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note Altria's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 8.86. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 9.29.

We can also see that MO currently has a PEG ratio of 2.21. 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 1.53 as of yesterday's close.

The Tobacco industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 24, putting it in the top 10% 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.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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