Shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE: MO) were up slightly on Tuesday. The stock has gained 5% over the past three months. The tobacco giant is set to report its first quarter 2023 earnings results on Thursday, April 27 before market open. Here’s a look at what to expect from the earnings report:
Revenue
Analysts are projecting revenue of $4.9 billion for Altria in the first quarter of 2023, which represents an increase of nearly 2% from the same period a year ago. In the fourth quarter of 2022, revenues, net of excise taxes, totaled $5 billion.
Earnings
The consensus estimate is for EPS of $1.19 in Q1 2023, which compares to EPS of $1.12 in the year-ago period. In Q4 2022, adjusted EPS rose 8% to $1.18.
Points to note
Altria’s efforts to build its smoke-free portfolio and its focus on e-vapor and heated tobacco products are key drivers of its growth strategy. Last month, the company exchanged its entire minority stake in JUUL Labs for certain of JUUL’s heated tobacco intellectual property rights.
Altria also entered into an agreement to acquire NJOY Holdings, which will give it access to the latter’s e-vapor product portfolio, including NJOY ACE, the only authorized pod-based e-vapor product. This transaction will help Altria significantly expand its footprint across the three largest smoke-free categories. It will be interesting to watch out for more details on these two transactions.
Another area of growth for Altria is oral tobacco products. In Q4 2022, total US oral tobacco category share for on! nicotine pouches grew to nearly 6%. The company is continuing its product innovation in this area with its newest product in development on! PLUS.
A recent survey published by Altria indicates that 82% of people in the US think it is important to make smoke-free products available to adult smokers to help them switch from cigarettes. This points to the opportunity available for Altria in the smoke-free space.