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Altria (MO) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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Altria (MO - Free Report) closed at $50.43 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.52% move from the prior day. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.91%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 1.22%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 1%.

Coming into today, shares of the owner of Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest cigarette maker had gained 9.11% in the past month. In that same time, the Consumer Staples sector gained 2.58%, while the S&P 500 gained 1.65%.

MO will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect MO to post earnings of $1.01 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 6.32%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $4.86 billion, up 1.48% from the prior-year quarter.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $4.21 per share and revenue of $19.83 billion, which would represent changes of +5.51% and +1.03%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for MO. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

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 ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. MO is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that MO has a Forward P/E ratio of 11.93 right now. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 12.8, so we one might conclude that MO is trading at a discount comparatively.

Meanwhile, MO's PEG ratio is currently 1.86. 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 1.86 as of yesterday's close.

The Tobacco industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 161, putting it in the bottom 37% 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.

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


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