Altria Earnings Remain Consistent With Steady Segment Growth

The company reaffirmed its guidance for 2015. It expects that EPS will be in the range of $2.75 to $2.80, and that the company will have a full-year effective tax rate of 35%. There are consensus estimates of $2.80 in EPS and $18.37 billion in revenue.

In February 2015, Altria’s board declared a regular quarterly dividend of $0.52 per share. The current annualized dividend rate is $2.08 per share, giving a current yield of 4.1%. In the first quarter, Altria paid approximately $1.0 billion in dividends.

Also during the first quarter of 2015, Altria repurchased roughly 3.6 million shares of its common stock at an average price of $53.03 for a total cost of $192 million. The company has roughly $326 million remaining in its current $1 billion repurchase program, which it expects to complete by the end of 2015.

In terms of its segments, Smokeable Products had revenues of $5.22 billion, or a 5.3% increase from the first quarter last year. In the first quarter as well, Smokeless products reported revenues of $430 million, a 3.6% increase. Finally, Wine saw its revenues grow by 3.9% to $134 million during the first quarter, compared to the same period last year.

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Marty Barrington, chairman, CEO and president of Altria, said:

Altria delivered strong operating and financial results in the first quarter, growing adjusted diluted EPS by 10.5% on the strength of our core tobacco businesses and their leading premium brands. In the smokeable segment, PM USA’s steady investments in Marlboro continued to strengthen the brand’s leadership position. In the smokeless segment, USSTC grew its volume, supported by retail share gains from Copenhagen and Skoal combined. And Nu Mark began shipping its next generation e-vapor product, MarkTen XL, into lead markets.

Altria Shares closed Wednesday relatively flat at $52.12. Following the release of the earnings report, shares remained relatively flat in premarket trading Thursday. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $57.00 and a 52-week trading range of $38.07 to $56.70.