Altria (MO) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know
Altria (MO) closed the most recent trading day at $49.70, moving -1.64% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.28% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.07%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.71%.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the owner of Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest cigarette maker had gained 0.54% over the past month. This has lagged the Consumer Staples sector's gain of 1.68% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.93% in that time.
MO will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be July 30, 2019. In that report, analysts expect MO to post earnings of $1.10 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 8.91%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $5.05 billion, up 3.45% from the year-ago period.
MO's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $4.18 per share and revenue of $19.70 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +4.76% and +0.37%, respectively.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for MO. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
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, 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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.08% higher. MO is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Valuation is also important, so investors should note that MO has a Forward P/E ratio of 12.09 right now. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 12.25.
It is also worth noting that MO currently has a PEG ratio of 1.58. 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. Tobacco stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.58 based on yesterday's closing prices.
The Tobacco industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 158, which puts it in the bottom 39% 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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Altria Group, Inc. (MO) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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