Shares of Altria Group Inc. slipped 0.7% in premarket trading Thursday, after the smokeable products company reported second-quarter net profit that was less than half of last year’s and revenue that fell a bit shy of forecasts. Net income dropped to $891 million or 49 cents a share, from $2.15 billion, or $1.16 a share, in the year ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share fell to $1.26 from $2.38 but topped the FactSet consensus of $1.25. The company recorded a loss of $1.2 billion during the quarter on the decrease in the estimated fair value of its JUUL investment. Total revenue declined 5.7% to $6.54 billion, while revenue net of excise tax fell 4.3% to $5.37 billion to miss the FactSet consensus of $5.41 billion. Smokeable products shipments fell 10.9%, as total cigarette shipments dropped 11.1% to 22.51 billion sticks and cigar shipments fell 5.0% to 433 million sticks. Altria affirmed its 2022 adjusted EPS guidance of $4.79 to $4.93. The stock has tumbled 20.2% over the past three months through Wednesday while the S&P 500 has slipped 6.2%.
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