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In the latest trading session, Altria (MO) closed at $44.95, marking a +0.36% move from the previous day. The stock's change was more than the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.32%. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a rise of 0.68%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw an increase of 0.2%.

Coming into today, shares of the owner of Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest cigarette maker had gained 10.68% in the past month. In that same time, the Consumer Staples sector gained 1.81%, while the S&P 500 gained 5.11%.

Market participants will be closely following the financial results of Altria in its upcoming release. The company plans to announce its earnings on April 25, 2024. It is anticipated that the company will report an EPS of $1.15, marking a 2.54% fall compared to the same quarter of the previous year. In the meantime, our current consensus estimate forecasts the revenue to be $4.73 billion, indicating a 0.62% decline compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year.

For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates project earnings of $5.08 per share and a revenue of $20.58 billion, demonstrating changes of +2.63% and +0.36%, respectively, from the preceding year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Altria. Such recent modifications usually signify the changing landscape of near-term business trends. Therefore, positive revisions in estimates convey analysts' confidence in the company's business performance and profit potential.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. To exploit this, we've formed the Zacks Rank, a quantitative model that includes these estimate changes and presents a viable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. Over the past month, there's been a 0.33% rise in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. Altria is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Investors should also note Altria's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 8.81. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 8.81, so one might conclude that Altria is trading at no noticeable deviation comparatively.

We can additionally observe that MO currently boasts a PEG ratio of 2.7. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The average PEG ratio for the Tobacco industry stood at 1.7 at the close of the market yesterday.

The Tobacco industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 59, putting it in the top 24% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.