- Altria announces Annual Meeting
voting results.
- Altria declares regular quarterly
dividend of $0.52 per share.
- Altria reaffirms its guidance for
2015 full-year adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) to be in
the range of $2.75 to $2.80, representing a growth rate of 7% to 9%
from an adjusted diluted EPS base of $2.57 in 2014.
Altria Group, Inc. (Altria) (NYSE:MO) held its 2015 Annual
Meeting of Shareholders (Annual Meeting) today. Altria’s Chairman,
Chief Executive Officer and President, Marty Barrington, summarized
Altria’s 2014 and first quarter 2015 operating and financial
results and emphasized Altria’s focus on its people and work
culture, commitment to communities and corporate responsibility
initiatives.
Voting Results for Altria’s Annual
Meeting
At the Annual Meeting, Altria’s shareholders elected to a
one-year term each of the 11 nominees for director named in
Altria’s proxy statement; approved the 2015 Performance Incentive
Plan and the 2015 Stock Compensation Plan for Non-Employee
Directors; ratified the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as
Altria’s independent registered public accounting firm for the
fiscal year ending December 31, 2015; approved, on an advisory
basis, the compensation of Altria’s named executive officers; and
defeated three shareholder proposals. Final voting results will be
reported in a Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the Securities
and Exchange Commission.
Regular Quarterly
Dividend
Following the Annual Meeting, Altria’s Board of Directors
declared a regular quarterly dividend of $0.52 per share, payable
on July 10, 2015, to shareholders of record as of June 15, 2015.
The ex-dividend date is June 11, 2015.
2015 Full-Year Guidance
Altria reaffirms its guidance for 2015 full-year adjusted
diluted EPS, which excludes the special items discussed in Schedule
1, to be in the range of $2.75 to $2.80, representing a growth rate
of 7% to 9% from an adjusted diluted EPS base of $2.57 in 2014, as
shown in Schedule 1.
The factors described in the Forward-Looking and Cautionary
Statements section of this release represent continuing risks to
Altria’s forecast.
Remarks and Presentation
A copy of Mr. Barrington’s prepared remarks and business
presentation, as well as a replay of the audio webcast of the
Annual Meeting, are available on altria.com and via the Altria
Investor app.
Altria’s Profile
Altria’s wholly-owned subsidiaries include Philip Morris USA
Inc. (PM USA), U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company LLC (USSTC), John
Middleton Co., Nu Mark LLC, Ste. Michelle Wine Estates Ltd. (Ste.
Michelle) and Philip Morris Capital Corporation. Altria holds a
continuing economic and voting interest in SABMiller plc
(SABMiller).
The brand portfolios of Altria’s tobacco operating companies
include Marlboro®, Black & Mild®,
Copenhagen®, Skoal®, MarkTen® and Green
Smoke®. Ste. Michelle produces and markets premium wines
sold under various labels, including Chateau Ste. Michelle®,
Columbia Crest®, 14 Hands® and Stag’s Leap Wine
Cellars™, and it imports and markets Antinori®,
Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte™, Torres® and Villa
Maria Estate™ products in the United States. Trademarks and
service marks related to Altria referenced in this release are the
property of Altria or its subsidiaries or are used with permission.
More information about Altria is available at altria.com and on the
Altria Investor app.
Forward-Looking and Cautionary
Statements
This press release contains projections of future results and
other forward-looking statements that involve 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 and outcomes to
differ materially from those contained in the projections and
forward-looking statements included in this press release are
described in Altria’s publicly filed reports, including its Annual
Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014 and its
Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended March 31,
2015.
These factors include the following: significant competition;
changes in adult consumer preferences and demand for Altria’s
operating companies’ products; fluctuations in raw material
availability, quality and price; reliance on key facilities and
suppliers; reliance on critical information systems, many of which
are managed by third-party service providers; fluctuations in
levels of customer inventories; the effects of global, national and
local economic and market conditions; changes to income tax laws;
federal, state and local legislative activity, including actual and
potential federal and state excise tax increases; increasing
marketing and regulatory restrictions; the effects of price
increases related to excise tax increases and concluded tobacco
litigation settlements on trade inventories, consumption rates and
consumer preferences within price segments; health concerns
relating to the use of tobacco products and exposure to
environmental tobacco smoke; privately imposed smoking
restrictions; and, from time to time, governmental
investigations.
Furthermore, the results of Altria’s tobacco businesses are
dependent upon their continued ability to promote brand equity
successfully; to anticipate and respond to evolving adult consumer
preferences; to develop, manufacture, market and distribute
products that appeal to adult tobacco consumers (including, where
appropriate, through arrangements with, and investments in, third
parties); to improve productivity; and to protect or enhance
margins through cost savings and price increases.
Altria and its tobacco businesses are also subject to federal,
state and local government regulation, including broad-based
regulation of PM USA and USSTC by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration. Altria and its subsidiaries continue to be subject
to litigation, including risks associated with adverse jury and
judicial determinations, courts reaching conclusions at variance
with the companies’ understanding of applicable law, bonding
requirements in the limited number of jurisdictions that do not
limit the dollar amount of appeal bonds and certain challenges to
bond cap statutes.
Altria cautions that the foregoing list of important factors is
not complete and does not undertake to update any forward-looking
statements that it may make except as required by applicable law.
All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements
attributable to Altria or any person acting on its behalf are
expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements
referenced above.
Schedule 1
ALTRIA GROUP, INC.
and Subsidiaries
First Quarter 2015 Special Items and
Reconciliation of 2014 Adjusted Results
Altria’s First Quarter 2015 Special Items
Tobacco and health litigation
items $ 0.01 SABMiller special items 0.03 Loss on early
extinguishment of debt 0.07
$
0.11 Reconciliation of Altria’s 2014
Adjusted Results Full Year 2014
Reported diluted EPS $ 2.56 NPM Adjustment
Items (0.03 ) Asset impairment, exit, integration and
acquisition-related costs 0.01 Tobacco and health litigation items
0.01 SABMiller special items 0.01 Loss on early extinguishment of
debt 0.02 Tax items (0.01 )
Adjusted diluted
EPS $ 2.57
Altria reports its financial results in accordance with U.S.
generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Altria’s
management reviews certain financial results, including diluted
EPS, on an adjusted basis, which exclude certain income and expense
items that management believes are not part of underlying
operations. These items may include, for example, loss on early
extinguishment of debt, restructuring charges, SABMiller special
items, certain tax items, charges associated with tobacco and
health litigation items, and settlements of, and determinations
made in connection with, certain non-participating manufacturer
(NPM) adjustment disputes (such settlements and determinations are
referred to collectively as NPM Adjustment Items). Altria’s
management does not view any of these special items to be part of
Altria’s sustainable results as they may be highly variable, are
difficult to predict and can distort underlying business trends and
results. Altria’s management believes that these adjusted financial
measures provide useful insight into underlying business trends and
results and provide a more meaningful comparison of year-over-year
results. Altria’s management uses adjusted financial measures for
planning, forecasting and evaluating business and financial
performance, including allocating resources and evaluating results
relative to employee compensation targets. These adjusted financial
measures are not consistent with GAAP, and 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.
Altria’s full-year adjusted diluted EPS guidance excludes the
impact of certain income and expense items, including those items
noted in the preceding paragraph. Altria’s management cannot
estimate on a forward-looking basis the impact of these items on
its reported diluted EPS because these items, which could be
significant, are difficult to predict and may be highly variable.
As a result, Altria does not provide a corresponding GAAP financial
measure for, or reconciliation to, its adjusted diluted EPS
guidance.
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