Altria's Profit Just Got Vaporized
For a long time, Altria Group's (NYSE: MO) biggest challenge was navigating the turbulent world of cigarette litigation and regulation. With consumer safety groups focusing on supporting the gradual but steady decline in adult smoking in the U.S. over the past several decades, Altria thought that exploring and encouraging potential alternatives to traditional cigarettes might be a reasonable way to perpetuate its business. Instead, e-cigarettes have come under fire as well.
Coming into Thursday's fourth-quarter financial report, Altria investors had hoped that the recent controversy over e-cigarettes wouldn't have too big an impact on its overall business. Altria's report included a massive impairment charge related to its investment in e-cig giant JUUL Labs, causing the tobacco giant to post an overall loss and triggering a big strategic shift for Altria going forward.
Altria's fourth-quarter results reflected the ongoing pressures that the company has faced. Revenue net of excise tax inched higher by 0.3% to $4.80 billion, which came in slightly below the $4.88 billion that many of those following the stock had anticipated seeing. Altria posted a net loss of $1.81 billion, and even after adjusting to remove the big one-time charges the tobacco giant suffered, adjusted earnings of $1.02 per share just matched the consensus forecast among investors.
Source Fool.com
