Altria trims EPS forecast, boosts share buyback

Altria trimmed its full-year profit forecasts and announced a large increase in its share buyback authorisation.

The cigarettes and wine-maker said the manner in which it would account for the extraordinary gain from the merger between Anheuser-Busch Inbev and SAB Miller meant its full-year 2016 earnings per share would be between $2.98 and $3.04, versus $3.01 and $3.07 beforehand.

As a result of the tie-up between the two groups Altria received approximately 185.1m shares or 9.6% of the outstanding stock, together with $5.3bn in cash, the company said.

Separately, management boosted its share buyback programme from $1bn to $3bn.