Altria Raises Full-Year EPS Guidance After a Strong Three Quarters
As seen on the 24/7 Wall St. homepage on October 29, 2026.
Our strong performance through the first nine months and confidence in our full-year plan allowed us to raise our earnings guidance for the year. We now expect to deliver adjusted diluted EPS in a range of $5.66 to $5.74, representing a growth rate of 4.5% to 6.0% from a base of $5.42 in 2025.
Altria is lifting its full-year earnings outlook with one quarter left, a rare move for a shrinking-volume cigarette business funding a 7%-plus dividend. The raise puts growth at the upper end of management's long-term algorithm, and income investors get the payout coverage question answered for 2026.
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Raising full-year earnings guidance with only one quarter remaining is an unusually confident signal for any company, but especially for one in a business defined by long-running volume declines. Altria's decision to lift its outlook suggests management has high visibility into how the fourth quarter will land, and that the variables most likely to disappoint have already been accounted for.
Altria lifted its adjusted diluted EPS range to $5.66 to $5.74 for the year. CEO Sal Mancuso cited strong performance through the first nine months as the driver, grounding the raise in results already on the books.
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For income investors, the guidance raise carries a specific meaning beyond headline earnings growth. A 7%-plus dividend yield only works sustainably if earnings are growing fast enough to keep the payout covered, and a raise to the upper end of management's long-term algorithm signals that coverage is intact for 2026.
The fourth quarter now becomes a matter of execution against a target management has publicly committed to, which tightens the margin for error. A shortfall lands harder against a guidance raise than against an unchanged outlook, so keep an eye on the stock into the Q4 earnings report.
Sources
Mentioned: MO