Two companies with good long-term growth potential will be considered in detail and against each other in hopes of finding a champion. At the end of the article we offer our opinion about which we think is better. The two companies in question are Altria Group (MO) and Philip Morris (PM).
Altria brand building initiatives on popular brands such as Marlboro Eighty Three, black and mild summer mix and Copenhagen South mixture seems to be paying off. Gross profit in the 2nd quarter increased by 26.5% to $ 2.5 billion compared to the same period one year ago. Operating income rose to $ 1.9 billion from $ 1.4 billion, compared to the same period one year ago. This represents an increase of 42.3%. The company increased its quarterly dividend from $ 0.41 to $ 0.44, an increase of 7.3%. This payment applies to shareholders of record on September 14 and is payable on 10th of October,
Reported and adjusted operating profit for the financial services segment increased to $ 42 million, an increase of $ 15 million in the second quarter. . Net revenue for the cigarette’s segment rose by 0.8% year over year to $5.9 billion. Net income for the smokeless products segment rose to $ 426 million, an increase of 5.4%
Net revenue in the segment rose wines to $ 128 million, which is 10.3% of the wave in the 2nd quarter. Volume of wine shipped increased by 2.1%, mainly due to increased exports.
Altria Group sports a large quarterly revenue growth rate of 175%, consistently increased dividends consecutively for 46 years and offers a very good yield of 5.10%.
