Altria Reports Q1 Net Revenue of $5.72 Billion, Down 2.9% Year on Year

Today, on April 28, news reports that Altria Group announced a net revenue of $5.72 billion for the first quarter of 2023, a decrease of 2.9% compared to the same period in 2022. After deducting excise taxes, revenue fell by 1.2% to $4.76 billion.<\/p>

Altria's CEO Billy Gifford stated in a statement: "We had a good start and believe our business is on track to meet our full-year plan. Our tobacco business performed well in a challenging macroeconomic environment. We achieved a strong growth of 5.4% in adjusted diluted earnings per share and announced exciting progress in realizing our vision."<\/p>

"We reaffirm our guidance to deliver adjusted diluted earnings per share for the full year 2023 in the range of $4.98 to $5.13. This range represents a growth rate of adjusted diluted earnings per share from a base of $4.84 in 2022 of 3% to 6%."<\/p>

In this quarter, Altria Group reached an agreement to acquire Njoy Holdings for approximately $2.75 billion in cash at closing, with an additional payment of up to $500 million in cash based on regulatory outcomes for certain Njoy products.<\/p>

In March, Altria exchanged its entire minority economic interest in JUUL Labs for a non-exclusive, irrevocable global license for certain heated tobacco intellectual property from Juul. Due to the Juul transaction in 2023, Altria recorded a non-cash pre-tax loss of $250 million for the three months ending March 31, 2023, related to the disposal of its Juul equity securities.<\/p>

Altria determined that the fair value of the intellectual property was not significant to its financial statements. Therefore, it did not record any assets related to that intellectual property in its condensed consolidated balance sheet as of March 31, 2023.<\/p>

"The main drivers of this conclusion were (i) our rights to the intellectual property are non-exclusive, (ii) no products or technologies related to the intellectual property were transferred to us, and (iii) the intellectual property is not related to our current product development plans," Altria stated in a press release.<\/p>