Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO) reported fourth-quarter and full-year 2019 results before markets opened Thursday. The maker of Marlboro cigarettes posted quarterly adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.02 on revenue of $4.8 billion (net of excise taxes). In the same period a year ago the company reported EPS of $0.95 on $4.79 billion in revenues. Consensus estimates called for EPS of $1.02 and revenue of $4.88 billion.
For the full year, Altria reported EPS of $4.22 and revenues of $19.8 billion, compared to 2018 EPS of $3.99 and revenues of $19.63 billion. Analysts had expected EPS of $4.22 and sales of $4.88 billion.
Altria took a fourth-quarter pretax, noncash impairment charge of $4.1 billion related to its $12.8 billion investment in e-cigarette maker Juul. In the third quarter, the company wrote down $4.5 billion related to the investment. The total $8.6 billion impairment leaves Altria with a carrying value of just $4.2 billion in Juul.
The impairment charges sent GAAP earnings into negative territory. For the quarter, Altria posted a loss per share of $1.00 and for the year the GAAP net loss per share was $0.70.
Chair and CEO Howard Willard said:
Despite the unexpected challenges related to our investment in JUUL, which led to impairment charges and reported losses, we made significant progress advancing and building our noncombustible business platform with the launch of IQOS and completion of the on! transaction. We enter 2020 with continued focus on harm reduction. We believe Altria’s enhanced business platform best positions us to succeed under various future category scenarios.
In addition to the impairment charges on Altria’s investment in Juul, the two firms revised the terms governing Altria’s investment. The most important to shareholders is that Altria now has an option to be released from its non-compete obligation if federal law prohibits the sale of vaping products for at least a year or if Altria’s carrying value on its $12. 8 billion investment does not retain more than 10% of its original value.
Altria lowered its compounded annual adjusted diluted EPS growth objective from its previously announced objective of 5% to 8% to a new range of 4% to 7% for the years 2020 through 2022. The lower estimate primarily reflects Altria’s current expectations for no equity earnings from Juul at least through 2022.
What investors like best about Altria (and other cigarette makers) is the company’s rich dividend yield. At last night’s close, the yield was 6.7%, lower than the 7.24% yield at the end of the third quarter but still solid. The company raised its dividend in August to an annualized rate of $3.36 and repurchased 16.5 million shares of stock in 2019 at a cost of about $845 million. Altria said it has $500 million remaining in its current buyback program and it expects to run that to zero by the end of this year.
In its guidance, Altria said it expects EPS of $4.39 to $4.51 for the 2020 fiscal year. The company also expects total domestic cigarette industry sales volume to decline by 4% to 6%, including the impact of the recent change to federal law raising the age limit for cigarette purchases from 18 to 21.
Analysts are estimating first-quarter EPS of $0.99 and sales of $4.5 billion, along with full-year EPS of $4.44 and sales of $20.28 billion.
The company’s shares traded down about 0.6% at $49.80 in Thursday’s premarket session. The stock’s 52-week range is $39.30 to $57.88. The 12-month consensus price target was $54.96 before this morning’s report.
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