Altria (MO) ended the recent trading session at $57.01, demonstrating a +1.89% swing from the preceding day's closing price. The stock's change was more than the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.78%. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a drop of 0.99%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw a decrease of 2.61%.

Shares of the owner of Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest cigarette maker witnessed a gain of 6.41% over the previous month, trailing the performance of the Consumer Staples sector with its gain of 6.86% and outperforming the S&P 500's loss of 3.48%.

The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Altria in its upcoming release. The company's earnings per share (EPS) are projected to be $1.19, reflecting a 3.48% increase from the same quarter last year. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $4.66 billion, down 1.11% from the year-ago period.

For the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $5.32 per share and a revenue of $20.48 billion, representing changes of +3.91% and +0.18%, respectively, from the prior 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. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research reveals that these estimate alterations are directly linked with the stock price performance in the near future. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.02% higher within the past month. As of now, Altria holds a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note Altria's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 10.52. This indicates no noticeable deviation in contrast to its industry's Forward P/E of 10.52.

Meanwhile, MO's PEG ratio is currently 2.97. Comparable to the widely accepted P/E ratio, the PEG ratio also accounts for the company's projected earnings growth. The Tobacco was holding an average PEG ratio of 2.79 at yesterday's closing price.

The Tobacco industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 162, this industry ranks in the bottom 36% of all industries, numbering over 250.

The Zacks Industry Rank is ordered from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. 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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Altria Group, Inc. (MO) : Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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