Altria Group (NYSE:MO) announced this morning that its second-quarter net income jumped to $1.23 billion, compared to $444 million during the same period last year when it recorded a $627 million charge against earnings.
Excluding excise taxes, revenue during the quarter rose 14% over last year to $4.6 billion, topping Wall Street predictions of $4.48 billion, the Associated Press noted.
Adjusted EPS came in at 59 cents a share, which also exceeded analysts, who forecast 57 cents.
Shares of Altria inched up less than 1% in Tuesday morning trading.
The company said it anticipated earnings of between $2.19 and $2.23 a share for the year. Wall Street is looking for earnings of $2.21 a share.
While the company saw increased sales of its discount brand cigarettes, those were countered by declines in its higher-priced brands, leaving cigarette volume for the quarter almost unchanged from a year ago at 36.2 billion. Marlboro increased its market share slightly to 42.9% of the domestic market.
Altria said that it had spent $66 million during the quarter to repurchase 2 million shares. The company had previously announced a $1 billion share repurchase program, which has $312 million left to spend before the end of this year.
Last week, Philip Morris International (NYSE:PM) reported second-quarter earnings and revenue that narrowly topped analysts’ estimates.
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