Altria (MO) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Altria (MO) closed at $49.23, marking a +1.78% move from the previous day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.85%.

Heading into today, shares of the owner of Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest cigarette maker had lost 0.39% over the past month, outpacing the Consumer Staples sector's loss of 2.2% and lagging the S&P 500's loss of 0.37% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from MO as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be October 28, 2021. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.27, up 6.72% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $5.82 billion, up 2.56% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $4.62 per share and revenue of $21.32 billion, which would represent changes of +5.96% and +2.3%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for MO. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

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, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.03% lower. 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 10.48 right now. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 10.48, so we one might conclude that MO is trading at a no noticeable deviation comparatively.

We can also see that MO currently has a PEG ratio of 2.62. 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 2.04 as of yesterday's close.

The Tobacco industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 82, which puts it in the top 33% 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.

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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