OREANDA-NEWS. Altria Group, Inc. (Altria) (NYSE: MO) today announced its 2015 third-quarter and nine-month business results and reaffirmed its guidance for 2015 full-year adjusted diluted EPS.

“Altria continued to deliver outstanding performance in the third quarter and for the first nine months. Once again, our businesses strengthened their market leadership, with strong income growth and solid retail share gains by the iconic Marlboro and Copenhagen brands,” said Marty Barrington, Altria’s Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President. “We believe our year-to-date adjusted EPS growth of 11.5% positions us well to deliver on our full-year plans. In addition, we’re pleased Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller continue to work together to finalize terms in advance of their possible combination. We see this transaction, and our participation in it as SABMiller’s largest shareholder, as a compelling opportunity to strengthen for our shareholders our position in the global brewing business.”

Conference Call

As previously announced, a conference call with the investment community and news media will be webcast on October 29, 2015 at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time. Access to the webcast is available at www.altria.com/webcasts and via the Altria Investor app.

Cash Returns to Shareholders - Dividends and Share Repurchase Program

In August 2015, Altria’s Board of Directors (Board) increased the regular quarterly dividend by 8.7% to $0.565 per share. The current annualized dividend rate is $2.26 per share. As of October 23, 2015, Altria’s annualized dividend yield was 3.7%. Altria paid over $1 billion in dividends in the third quarter and approximately $3.1 billion for the first nine months of 2015. Altria expects to continue to return a large amount of cash to shareholders in the form of dividends by maintaining a dividend payout ratio target of approximately 80% of its adjusted diluted EPS. Future dividend payments remain subject to the discretion of the Board.

As previously announced, Altria repurchased 1.2 million shares for a total of $63 million during the third quarter of 2015, completing its previous share repurchase program. The Board authorized a new $1 billion share repurchase program, which the company expects to complete by the end of 2016. The timing of share repurchases depends upon marketplace conditions and other factors. This program remains subject to the discretion of the Board.

Innovative Tobacco Products

Nu Mark LLC (Nu Mark) expanded distribution of MarkTen XL e-vapor products and also continued to evaluate the retail positioning of Green Smoke e-vapor products through several lead markets. Additionally, Nu Mark continued working with Philip Morris International Inc. to make progress on research, product development and technology-sharing for e-vapor products as a result of the joint agreement announced in July.

Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Proposed Business Combination with SABMiller

On October 13, 2015, Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (AB InBev) and SABMiller plc (SABMiller) jointly announced an agreement in principle on key terms regarding a possible recommended offer for AB InBev to effect a business combination with SABMiller. On October 28, 2015, the U.K. Takeover Panel extended the relevant takeover code deadline until November 4, 2015 to enable AB InBev and SABMiller to continue to address all the details necessary for AB InBev to deliver a firm offer.

2015 Full-Year Guidance

Altria reaffirms its guidance for 2015 full-year adjusted diluted EPS, which excludes the special items recorded for the first nine months of 2015 as shown in Table 2, to be in a range of $2.76 to $2.81. This range represents a growth rate of 7.5% to 9.5% from an adjusted diluted EPS base of $2.57 in 2014, as shown in Table 1 below.

Altria expects moderated adjusted diluted EPS results in the fourth quarter of 2015 versus the prior year due to several factors. These include lapping the benefit received from the expiration of federal tobacco quota buy-out payments; lapping some of the effects of a stronger economy and lower gasoline prices; and a higher effective tax rate on operations. Additionally, trade inventories for cigarettes may moderate moving forward and unfavorable foreign currency translation could affect prior-year comparisons of earnings from Altria’s equity investment in SABMiller. Altria expects its 2015 full-year effective tax rate on operations will be 35.3%.