Altria Results Demonstrate Resilience

Altria Group’s net revenues rose by 3.9 percent to $7.12 billion and by 3.9 percent to $19.85 billion in the third quarter and the first nine months of 2020, respectively, when compared to the same periods in 2019.

“Altria continued to demonstrate its resilience during the third quarter while navigating the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Altria CEO Billy Gifford in a statement. “In the third quarter, our tobacco businesses delivered strong financial performance once again and we continued to make progress against our 10-year Vision.”

Altria noted that Philip Morris USA expects its heat-not-burn IQOS devices to be available for sale in select Charlotte, North Carolina, convenience stores sometime in November while Helix expanded the distribution of On! by an additional 16,000 stores with its modern oral product now available in 56,000 stores as of the end of the third quarter.

While tobacco analysts from Morgan Stanley noted that Altria’s third-quarter results were ahead of expectations, Philip Morris’ recent write-down of Juul was larger than expected.