Altria Group Holds Annual Meeting

Altria Group held its 2021 annual meeting of shareholders on May 20. During the annual meeting, CEO Billy Gifford summarized Altria’s full-year 2020 and first-quarter 2021 financial results and discussed Altria’s progress toward its vision of responsibly transitioning adult smokers to a noncombustible future. Gifford also shared Altria’s corporate responsibility priorities and environmental, social and governance efforts, reaffirmed Altria’s guidance for adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) and addressed shareholder questions.

Altria’s shareholders elected to a one-year term each of the 11 nominees for director named in Altria’s proxy statement, ratified the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers as Altria’s independent registered public accounting firm for 2021, approved, on an advisory basis, the compensation of Altria’s named executive officers and rejected two shareholder proposals.

On May 10, 2021, Altria’s board of directors elected Kathryn McQuade to serve as Altria’s independent chair of the board. The appointment became effective following the conclusion of the annual meeting.

In his remarks, Gifford reaffirmed Altria’s guidance for 2021 full-year adjusted diluted EPS to be in a range of $4.49 to $4.62, representing a growth rate of 3 percent to 6 percent from an adjusted diluted EPS base of $4.36 in 2020.