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

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In the latest trading session, Altria (MO - Free Report) closed at $44.59, marking a +0.16% move from the previous day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.72%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the owner of Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest cigarette maker had lost 0.51% over the past month. This has was narrower than the Consumer Staples sector's loss of 0.58% and lagged the S&P 500's gain of 0.11% in that time.

Altria will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. On that day, Altria is projected to report earnings of $1.09 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 10.1%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $5.04 billion, down 0.24% from the year-ago period.

MO's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $4.61 per share and revenue of $21.03 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +5.73% and +0.93%, respectively.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Altria should also be noted by investors. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, 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 0.03% lower. Altria is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note Altria's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 9.65. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 10.08.

We can also see that MO currently has a PEG ratio of 2.41. 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. The Tobacco was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.9 at yesterday's closing price.

The Tobacco industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 228, which puts it in the bottom 11% 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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