Shares of Altria Group Inc. MO, -0.36% gained 0.5% in premarket trading Thursday, after the cigarettes and smoke-free products company beat profit and revenue expectations, and raised its full-year outlook. Net income rose to $2.15 billion, or $1.16 a share, from $1.94 billion, or $1.04 a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share rose 12.8% to $1.23, above the FactSet consensus of $1.18. Revenue grew 8.9% to $6.94 billion, beating the FactSet consensus of $6.65 billion. Total cigarette shipments rose 1.4% to 25.31 billion sticks, with Marlboro shipments rising 2.5% to 22.34 billion sticks. Oral tobacco products revenue rose 5.0% to $693 million. Separately, Altria recorded an expense of 10 cents a share from its investment in cannabis company Cronos Group Inc. CRON, +7.15%. For 2021, the company lifted its adjusted EPS guidance range to $4.56 to $4.62 from $4.49 to $4.62. The stock has advanced 16.2% year to date through Wednesday, while the S&P 500 SPX, -0.02% has tacked on 17.2%.
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