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

Rhea-AI Summary

Altria Group, Inc. (MO) participates in the Consumer Analyst Group of New York Conference, highlighting progress and growth aspirations.

RICHMOND, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- 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 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), 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:

• our inability to anticipate and respond to changes in adult tobacco consumer preferences and purchase behavior;
• our inability to compete effectively;
• the growth of the e-vapor category, including illegal flavored disposable e-vapor products, and other innovative tobacco products, including oral nicotine pouches, contributing to reductions in cigarette and MST consumption levels and shipment volume;
• our failure to commercialize innovative products, including tobacco products that may reduce health risks relative to other tobacco products and appeal to adult tobacco consumers;
• changes, including in macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions (including inflation), that result in shifts in adult tobacco consumer disposable income and purchasing behavior, including choosing lower-priced and discount brands or products, and reductions in shipment volumes;
• unfavorable outcomes with respect to litigation proceedings or any governmental investigations;
• the risks associated with significant federal, state and local government actions, including FDA regulatory actions and inaction, and various private sector actions;
• increases in tobacco product-related taxes;
• our failure to complete or manage successfully strategic transactions, including acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures and investments in third parties, or realize the anticipated benefits of such transactions;
• significant changes in price, availability or quality of tobacco, other raw materials or component parts, including as a result of changes in macroeconomic, climate and geopolitical conditions;
• our reliance on a few significant facilities and a small number of key suppliers, distributors and distribution chain service providers and the risks associated with an extended disruption at a facility or in service by a supplier, distributor or distribution chain service provider;
• the risk that we may be required to write down intangible assets, including trademarks and goodwill, due to impairment;
• the risk that we could decide, or be required to, recall products;
• the various risks related to health epidemics and pandemics, and the measures that international, federal, state and local governments, agencies, law enforcement and health authorities implement to address them;
• our inability to attract and retain a highly skilled and diverse workforce due to the decreasing social acceptance of tobacco usage, tobacco control actions and other factors;
• the risks associated with the various U.S. and foreign laws and regulations to which we are subject due to our international business operations;
• the risks concerning a challenge to our tax positions, an increase in the income tax rate or other changes to federal or state tax laws;
• the risks associated with legal and regulatory requirements related to climate change and other environmental sustainability matters;
• disruption and uncertainty in the credit and capital markets, including risk of losing access to these markets;
• a downgrade or potential downgrade of our credit ratings;
• our inability to attract investors due to increasing investor expectations of our performance relating to corporate responsibility factors;
• the failure of our, or our key service providers’ or key suppliers’, information systems to function as intended, or cyber-attacks or security breaches;
• our failure, or the failure of our key service providers or key suppliers, to comply with personal data protection, privacy, artificial intelligence and information security laws;
• the risk that the expected benefits of our investment in ABI may not materialize in the expected manner or timeframe or at all, including due to macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions; foreign currency exchange rates; ABI’s business results; ABI’s share price; impairment losses on the value of our investment; our incurrence of additional tax liabilities related to our investment in ABI; and potential reductions in the number of directors that we can have appointed to the ABI board of directors; and
• the risks associated with our investment in Cronos, including legal, regulatory and reputational risks and the risk that the expected benefits of the transaction may not materialize in the expected timeframe or at all.

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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Source: Altria Group, Inc.

FAQ

What event is Altria Group, Inc. participating in?

Altria Group, Inc. is participating in the Consumer Analyst Group of New York Conference.

Who are the key executives representing Altria Group, Inc. at the conference?

Billy Gifford, Altria’s Chief Executive Officer, and Sal Mancuso, Altria’s Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, are representing the company at the conference.

What will be discussed at the conference by Altria Group, Inc.?

Altria Group, Inc. will discuss their progress towards their Vision, strategies supported by traditional tobacco businesses, and long-term growth aspirations.