Altria Group Inc. nudged its earnings guidance higher on
Wednesday, as improved cigarette shipment volumes led to
better-than-expected revenue in the June quarter.
Shares of Altria are up about 12% this year through Tuesday's
close. They were up 1.4% in light premarket trading.
"Our tobacco companies' brands continued to strengthen their
market leadership, with record retail share on Marlboro and more
than 51% combined share on Copenhagen and Skoal year-to-date,"
Chief Executive Marty Barrington said.
For the year, the largest U.S. tobacco company raised its
earnings guidance range by 1 cent, now expecting per-share earnings
of $2.76 to $2.81.
It expects earnings growth to "moderate" in the second half of
the year due to lower gasoline prices, expected trade inventory
movements and the effect of state excise tax increases.
The company said its cigarette shipments grew 3.1% from the
year-earlier quarter. Altria's cigarettes had market share of
51.4%, up from 50.9%.
At the same time, alternative products like e-cigarettes have
been less of a drag than some industry observers predicted. Revenue
for smokeless products was $481 million, up from $464 million a
year earlier. Volume grew 2.6%.
Earnings rose to $1.45 billion from $1.26 billion in the
year-earlier quarter. Per-share earnings grew to 74 cents from 64
cents.
Overall, revenue at Altria, which also sells wine, grew to $6.61
billion from $6.26 billion a year earlier. Excluding excise taxes,
revenue increased to $4.9 billion.
Analysts had expected per-share earnings of 71 cents on revenue
excluding excise taxes of $4.75 billion.
Write to Angela Chen at angela.chen@wsj.com
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