ALTRIA PRESENTS AS PART OF THE CONSUMER ANALYST GROUP OF NEW YORK CONFERENCE; REAFFIRMS 2025 FULL-YEAR EARNINGS GUIDANCE
Altria Group, Inc. (Altria) (NYSE: MO) is participating in the Consumer Analyst Group of New York Conference in Orlando, 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.
“We believe our actions over time have positioned Altria to win in U.S. nicotine over the long term,” said Billy Gifford. “We have a demonstrated commitment to responsibility, an extensive understanding of U.S. nicotine consumers and a compelling portfolio with products in each of today’s smoke-free categories. We also have significant cash flows and a flexible balance sheet that support our investments and cash returns to shareholders.”
Remarks and Presentation
The presentation will be webcast live on www.altria.com in a listen-only mode, beginning at approximately 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time. A copy of the business presentation, prepared remarks and a replay of the webcast will be available at www.altria.com.
2025 Full-Year Guidance
We reaffirm our guidance to deliver 2025 full-year adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) in a range of $5.22 to $5.37, representing a growth rate of 2% to 5% from a base of $5.12 in 2024. Our guidance includes the impact of one fewer shipping day in 2025, which occurs in the first quarter, assumes limited impact on combustible and e-vapor product volumes from enforcement efforts in the illicit e-vapor market and includes the reinvestment of anticipated cost savings related to our previously announced Optimize & Accelerate initiative (Initiative). The guidance range also includes lower expected net periodic benefit income.
While our 2025 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 (ATC) dynamics, including purchasing patterns and adoption of smoke-free products, (iii) illicit product enforcement and (iv) regulatory, litigation and legislative developments.
Our 2025 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. This guidance range excludes the per share impacts that we expect to record in 2025 related to charges associated with our Initiative.
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, 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 Master Settlement Agreement (NPM Adjustment Items). See Schedule 1 below for the income and expense items for the full-year 2024.
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 Smoking™, 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), an e-vapor manufacturer with a commercialized product portfolio fully covered by marketing granted orders from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Additionally, we have a majority-owned joint venture, Horizon Innovations LLC (Horizon), for the U.S. marketing and commercialization of heated tobacco stick products.
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, 2023. 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 to be 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 |
||||||||
2024 Reported |
$ |
13,658 |
|
$ |
2,394 |
|
$ |
11,264 |
|
$ |
6.54 |
|
NPM Adjustment Items |
|
(27 |
) |
|
(7 |
) |
|
(20 |
) |
|
(0.01 |
) |
Acquisition, disposition and integration-related items |
|
(2,527 |
) |
|
(665 |
) |
|
(1,862 |
) |
|
(1.08 |
) |
Asset impairment, exit and implementation costs |
|
422 |
|
|
107 |
|
|
315 |
|
|
0.18 |
|
Tobacco and health and certain other litigation items |
|
101 |
|
|
25 |
|
|
76 |
|
|
0.04 |
|
ABI-related special items |
|
2 |
|
|
— |
|
|
2 |
|
|
— |
|
Cronos-related special items |
|
18 |
|
|
3 |
|
|
15 |
|
|
0.01 |
|
Income tax items |
|
— |
|
|
969 |
|
|
(969 |
) |
|
(0.56 |
) |
2024 Adjusted for Special Items |
$ |
11,647 |
|
$ |
2,826 |
|
$ |
8,821 |
|
|
5.12 |
|
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 “2025 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.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250218457455/en/
Altria Client Services
Investor Relations
804-484-8222
Altria Client Services
Media Relations
804-484-8897
www.altria.com/contact-us/media