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Classified in: Business
Subjects: EARNINGS, Conference, Product/Service, Webcast, Advisory

Altria Presents as Part of the Consumer Analyst Group of New York Conference; Reaffirms 2024 Full-Year Earnings Guidance


Altria Group, Inc. (Altria) (NYSE: MO) is participating in the Consumer Analyst Group of New York Conference in Boca Raton, Florida today. Billy Gifford, Altria's Chief Executive Officer, and Sal Mancuso, Altria's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, will highlight our exciting progress toward our Vision, discuss how our traditional tobacco businesses continue to support our strategies and provide more detail on our long-term growth aspirations.

"I'm confident about the future for tobacco harm reduction in the U.S. There is a significant opportunity to shift millions of smokers away from cigarettes to the benefit of adult tobacco consumers, our shareholders and society," said Billy Gifford. "As the leader in the U.S. nicotine industry, we believe we are best positioned to lead the tobacco harm reduction opportunity."

Remarks and Presentation

The presentation will be webcast live on www.altria.com in a listen-only mode, beginning at approximately 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time. A copy of the business presentation, prepared remarks and a replay of the webcast will be available at www.altria.com.

2024 Full-Year Guidance

We reaffirm our guidance to deliver 2024 full-year adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) in a range of $5.00 to $5.15, representing a growth rate of 1% to 4% from a base of $4.95 in 2023. We expect 2024 adjusted diluted EPS growth to be weighted to the second half of the year. Our guidance includes the impact of two additional shipping days in 2024 and assumes limited impact from enforcement efforts in the illicit e-vapor market on combustible and e-vapor volumes.

While the 2024 full-year adjusted diluted EPS guidance accounts for a range of scenarios, the external environment remains dynamic. We will continue to monitor conditions related to (i) the economy, including the cumulative impact of inflation, (ii) adult tobacco consumer dynamics, including purchasing patterns and adoption of smoke-free products, (iii) illicit e-vapor enforcement and (iv) regulatory, litigation and legislative developments.

Our 2024 full-year adjusted diluted EPS guidance range includes planned investments in support of our Vision, such as (i) marketplace activities in support of our smoke-free products and (ii) continued smoke-free product research, development and regulatory preparation expenses.

The 2024 full-year adjusted diluted EPS guidance range excludes an estimated per share gain of $1.14 related to the sale of the IQOS Tobacco Heating System commercialization rights that we expect to occur in the second quarter of 2024.

Our full-year adjusted diluted EPS guidance range excludes the impact of certain income and expense items that our management believes are not part of underlying operations. These items may include, for example, loss on early extinguishment of debt, restructuring charges, asset impairment charges, acquisition, disposition and integration-related items, equity investment-related special items (including any changes in fair value of our former equity investment in JUUL Labs, Inc. (JUUL) recorded at fair value), certain income tax items, charges associated with tobacco and health and certain other litigation items, and resolutions of certain non-participating manufacturer (NPM) adjustment disputes under the MSA (NPM Adjustment Items).

Our management cannot estimate on a forward-looking basis the impact of certain income and expense items, including those items noted in the preceding paragraph, on our reported diluted EPS because these items, which could be significant, may be unusual or infrequent, are difficult to predict and may be highly variable. As a result, we do not provide a corresponding U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) measure for, or reconciliation to, our adjusted diluted EPS guidance.

Altria's Profile

We have a leading portfolio of tobacco products for U.S. tobacco consumers age 21+. Our Vision is to responsibly lead the transition of adult smokers to a smoke-free future (Vision). We are Moving Beyond Smokingtm, leading the way in moving adult smokers away from cigarettes by taking action to transition millions to potentially less harmful choices - believing it is a substantial opportunity for adult tobacco consumers, our businesses and society.

Our wholly owned subsidiaries include leading manufacturers of both combustible and smoke-free products. In combustibles, we own Philip Morris USA Inc. (PM USA), the most profitable U.S. cigarette manufacturer, and John Middleton Co. (Middleton), a leading U.S. cigar manufacturer. Our smoke-free portfolio includes ownership of U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company LLC (USSTC), the leading global moist smokeless tobacco (MST) manufacturer, Helix Innovations LLC (Helix), a leading manufacturer of oral nicotine pouches, and NJOY, LLC (NJOY), currently the only e-vapor manufacturer to receive market authorizations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a pod-based e-vapor product.

Additionally, we have a majority-owned joint venture, Horizon Innovations LLC (Horizon), for the U.S. marketing and commercialization of heated tobacco stick products and, through a separate agreement, we have the exclusive U.S. commercialization rights to the IQOS Tobacco Heating System® and Marlboro HeatSticks® through April 2024.

Our equity investments include Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (ABI), the world's largest brewer, and Cronos Group Inc. (Cronos), a leading Canadian cannabinoid company.

The brand portfolios of our operating companies include Marlboro®, Black & Mild®, Copenhagen®, Skoal®, on!® and NJOY®. Trademarks related to Altria referenced in this release are the property of Altria or our subsidiaries or are used with permission.

Learn more about Altria at www.altria.com and follow us on X (formerly known as Twitter), Facebook and LinkedIn.

Forward-Looking and Cautionary Statements

This release contains projections of future results and other forward-looking statements that are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties and are made pursuant to the Safe Harbor Provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Important factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements included in this release are described in our publicly filed reports, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022 and our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. These factors include the following:

You should understand that it is not possible to predict or identify all factors and risks. Consequently, you should not consider the foregoing list complete. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that we may make from time to time except as required by applicable law. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to Altria or any person acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements referenced above.

Schedule 1

ALTRIA GROUP, INC.

and Subsidiaries

Reconciliation of GAAP and non-GAAP Measures

(dollars in millions, except per share data)

(Unaudited)

 

 

Earnings before Income Taxes

 

Provision for Income Taxes

 

Net Earnings

 

Diluted EPS

2023 Reported

 

$

10,928

 

$

2,798

 

$

8,130

 

$

4.57

NPM Adjustment Items

 

 

(50)

 

 

(12)

 

 

(38)

 

 

(0.02)

Acquisition, disposition and integration-related items

 

 

35

 

 

9

 

 

26

 

 

0.01

Tobacco and health and certain other litigation items

 

 

430

 

 

107

 

 

323

 

 

0.18

Loss on disposition of JUUL equity securities

 

 

250

 

 

?

 

 

250

 

 

0.14

ABI-related special items

 

 

89

 

 

19

 

 

70

 

 

0.03

Cronos-related special items

 

 

29

 

 

?

 

 

29

 

 

0.02

Income tax items

 

 

?

 

 

(32)

 

 

32

 

 

0.02

2023 Adjusted for Special Items

 

$

11,711

 

$

2,889

 

$

8,822

 

$

4.95

While we report our financial results in accordance with GAAP, our management reviews certain financial results, including diluted EPS, on an adjusted basis, which excludes certain income and expense items, including those items noted under "2024 Full-Year Guidance" in the release. Our management does not view any of these special items to be part of our underlying results as they may be highly variable, may be unusual or infrequent, are difficult to predict and can distort underlying business trends and results. Our management believes that adjusted financial measures provide useful additional insight into underlying business trends and results and provide a more meaningful comparison of year-over-year results. Our management uses adjusted financial measures for planning, forecasting and evaluating business and financial performance, including allocating capital and other resources and evaluating results relative to employee compensation targets. These adjusted financial measures are not required by, or calculated in accordance with GAAP and may not be calculated the same as similarly titled measures used by other companies. These adjusted financial measures should thus be considered as supplemental in nature and not considered in isolation or as a substitute for the related financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP.


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