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Altria (MO) Stock Moves -0.26%: What You Should Know

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Altria (MO - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $49.41, moving -0.26% from the previous trading session. This change was narrower than the S&P 500's 0.34% loss on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.09%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.43%.

Heading into today, shares of the owner of Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest cigarette maker had lost 2.6% over the past month, lagging the Consumer Staples sector's gain of 1.24% and the S&P 500's gain of 4.46% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from MO as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be July 30, 2019. In that report, analysts expect MO to post earnings of $1.09 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 7.92%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $5.06 billion, up 3.64% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $4.17 per share and revenue of $19.67 billion, which would represent changes of +4.51% and +0.21%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for MO. 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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.03% lower. MO currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that MO has a Forward P/E ratio of 11.87 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 12.17, which means MO is trading at a discount to the group.

Also, we should mention that MO has a PEG ratio of 1.55. 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 1.55 as of yesterday's close.

The Tobacco industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 163, putting it in the bottom 37% 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.

To follow MO in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.


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