Altria (MO) Dips More Than Broader Markets: What You Should Know
Altria (MO) closed at $48.24 in the latest trading session, marking a -1.35% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.53%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.36%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.94%.
Heading into today, shares of the owner of Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest cigarette maker had lost 9.31% over the past month, lagging the Consumer Staples sector's loss of 3.42% and the S&P 500's loss of 1.47% in that time.
MO will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be February 7, 2019. On that day, MO is projected to report earnings of $0.94 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 3.3%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $4.82 billion, up 22.59% from the prior-year quarter.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for MO. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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.
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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 1.42% lower within the past month. MO is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Investors should also note MO's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 11.52. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 12.02, which means MO is trading at a discount to the group.
We can also see that MO currently has a PEG ratio of 1.34. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Tobacco industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.51 as of yesterday's close.
The Tobacco industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 185, which puts it in the bottom 28% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
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