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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