Altria Group, Inc. (MO) has reported a 15.12 percent rise in profit for the quarter ended Mar. 31, 2017. The company has earned $1,401 million, or $0.72 a share in the quarter, compared with $1,217 million, or $0.62 a share for the same period last year. On an adjusted basis, net profit for the quarter was almost stable at $1,410 million, or $0.73 a share, when compared with the last year period.
Revenue during the quarter went up marginally by 0.28 percent to $6,083 million from $6,066 million in the previous year period. Gross margin for the quarter expanded 190 basis points over the previous year period to 45.68 percent. Total expenses were 63.06 percent of quarterly revenues, down from 67.41 percent for the same period last year. This has led to an improvement of 435 basis points in operating margin to 36.94 percent.
Operating income for the quarter was $2,247 million, compared with $1,977 million in the previous year period.
"Altria is off to a solid start in 2017 despite some short-term headwinds," said Marty Barrington, Altria's chairman, chief executive officer and president. "We grew first-quarter adjusted diluted earnings per share by 1.4% against a difficult comparison in the year-ago quarter when we grew adjusted diluted EPS more than 14%. The smokeable products segment continued to generate strong results, which offset lower equity earnings from our beer investment and the effect of the voluntary product recall in the smokeless products segment."
For financial year 2017, Altria Group, Inc. forecasts diluted earnings per share to be in the range of $3.26 to $3.32 on adjusted basis.
Debt moves up
Altria Group, Inc. has witnessed an increase in total debt over the last one year. It stood at $13,884 million as on Mar. 31, 2017, up 8.05 percent or $1,034 million from $12,850 million on Mar. 31, 2016. Total debt was 30.07 percent of total assets as on Mar. 31, 2017, compared with 37.72 percent on Mar. 31, 2016. Debt to equity ratio was at 1.13 as on Mar. 31, 2017, down from 4.68 as on Mar. 31, 2016.
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