Yahoo Finance How Much Did Altria’s Stock Rise after Its 1Q16 Results?
How Altria Group Beat Earnings and Sales Estimates in 1Q16
Upward movement
Altria Group’s (MO) stock price rose 1.0% to $62.19 after it released its earnings on April 28, 2016.
Altria’s stock has consistently seen upward movement since the beginning of 2015. However, its stock price fell ~8% to $47.54 on June 15, 2015, from $51.62 on May 28, 2015. The fall was due to sharp rises in gasoline prices, which led to lower spending of consumer disposable income on premium cigarettes.
Stock movement versus peers
Altria’s stock has risen ~30% since January 2015 and 8.4% year-to-date. On April 12, 2016, Altria was trading at a two-year peak of $63.82.
The benchmark S&P 500 Index (SPY) (IVV) (VOO) has risen 0.9% since January 2015 and 3.1% year-to-date. The stock prices of British American Tobacco (BTI), Philip Morris International (PM), and Reynolds American (RAI) have also risen 14.5%, 20.2%, and 54.5%, respectively, since January 2015.
Dividends and share repurchases
In February 2016, Altria declared a quarterly dividend of $0.57 per share. Its current annualized dividend rate is $2.26 per share. The company’s annualized dividend yield was 3.7% as of April 22, 2016.
Altria paid over $1.1 billion in dividends to shareholders in 1Q16, and it expects to return cash in the form of dividends by maintaining a dividend payout ratio target of approximately 80% of its adjusted diluted earnings per share.
The company repurchased 2.8 million shares for a total of $168 million in 1Q16. As of March 31, 2016, Altria had approximately $797 million remaining in its current $1 billion share repurchase program. It expects to complete the program by the end of 2016.
MO makes up 1.5% of the PowerShares High Yield Equity Dividend Achievers ETF (PEY).
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