Cigarette smoking has been in decline for many years, however that hasn’t stopped Altria Group (NYSE: MO) from making heaps of dividend funds to glad shareholders. The corporate behind the main Marlboro model raised its quarterly payout 58 occasions over the previous 54 years.
In 2023, Altria distributed about $6.8 billion price of dividend funds. The inventory presents buyers a quarterly payout of $0.98 per share. At its current closing worth of round $42 per share, buyers will obtain an ultra-high 9.3% yield even when the corporate does not elevate its payout.
Altria Group normally declares quarterly payout raises in August. It is nonetheless too early to know precisely how a lot the corporate will distribute in 2024, however we are able to definitely count on its 54-year streak to proceed.
How Altria might hold elevating its dividend payout
Folks aren’t sparking up cigarettes as usually as they used to, however nicotine consumption within the U.S. remains to be trending upward at roughly the tempo of inhabitants development. Altria’s first try to transition people who smoke to e-vapor units hit a serious roadblock in 2020 when the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) banned flavored e-cigarettes.
Regardless of promoting 9.9% fewer cigarettes, the corporate reported whole income, internet of excise taxes, that fell by simply 0.9% final 12 months. By controlling prices and repurchasing shares, Altria was in a position to elevate adjusted earnings by 2.3% in 2023.
Altria’s inventory worth has been beneath strain as a result of the corporate’s shedding market share to Elf Bar and different illicit e-vapor merchandise. The aggressive risk is not going away, but it surely might start to subside. Growing enforcement of the flavour ban, plus the current launch of its new e-cigarette model NJOY, will greater than probably assist whole gross sales return to development.
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How A lot Will Altria Group Pay in Dividends This Yr? was initially revealed by The Motley Idiot