Canada Housing Market Braces for Extended Pricing Slump
Housing helped spur growth in Canada just prior to, and after the worst of, the Covid-19 pandemic, supporting the recovery of lost jobs and output even while masking underlying weaknesses including tepid business investment.
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3 minutes ago
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Altria Has a Big Dividend Yield, but Is It Sustainable?
Key Points Altria Group's earnings rose, but its core cigarette business continues to see large volume declines. At this point, the dividend looks safe. However, investors need to be wary of when price hikes stop working. 10 stocks we like better than Altria Group › With Altria Group's (NYSE: MO) forward dividend yield at 6.6%, investors tend to be more concerned about the company's dividend than its earnings momentum. The company has increased its payout every year since 2009, but with cigarette volumes continuing to decline, the question on many investors' minds is whether the dividend and its increased payouts are sustainable. Let's look at the company's recent results to find out. Raised guidance, but questions remain In the second quarter, Altria saw solid adjusted earnings per share (EPS) growth and raised its earnings guidance, although it is still facing headwinds. Overall revenue net of excise taxes fell 1.7% to $5.29 billion, while adjusted EPS climbed 8.3% to $1.44. That was above analyst expectations for revenue of $5.19 billion and EPS of $1.39, as compiled by FactSet. Altria's on! nicotine pouches, which compete with Philip Morris International's Zyn, saw strong growth, with shipment volumes climbing 26.5% to 52.1 million cans. Revenue net of excise taxes in the oral products segment that houses on! rose 6% to $728 million. Segment shipment volumes fell 1% to 198.6 million units. Adjusted operating income for the segment rose 10.9% to $500 million. The company's cigarette business continues to experience large shipment declines, with overall shipment volumes down 10.2%. Its leading Marlboro brand saw shipments fall 11.4% in the quarter, while other premium brand shipments sank 13%. Discount brand shipments jumped 17.6%, while cigar volumes rose 3.7%. For its smokeable segment, revenue net of excise taxes fell 0.4% to $4.6 billion. Adjusted operating income for the segment increased 4.2% to $2.95 billion. Altria's Njoy e-vapor business is currently in a patent dispute with Juul, in which it previously had a large stake. It lost the trial and subsequent appeal, and it just recently completed a new product design for its Njoy Ace solution in an effort to work around the patents it violated. Looking ahead, the company raised the low end of its full-year adjusted EPS outlook to $5.35 to $5.45, representing 3% to 5% growth. That's up from a prior range of $5.30 to $5.45. Is the dividend safe? Altria currently pays a dividend of $1.02 a quarter, or an annual rate of $4.08. The company generated $2.9 billion in both operating cash flow and free cash flow through the first six months of the year. Meanwhile, it paid $3.5 billion in dividends over the same period. Through the first six months of the year, its cash flows are not covering its dividend payout, which can be a red flag. However, last year it covered the $6.8 billion in dividends it paid out with free cash flows of $8.6 billion, and it tends to generate much more cash flow in the second half of the year. Looking at its balance sheet, Altria ended the quarter with debt-to-EBITDA leverage of 2 times, which is reasonable. As such, the dividend looks sustainable for the foreseeable future. The big concern for investors is the steady, large drop in cigarette volumes. At some point, price hikes stop working, and that's a real risk. Tobacco companies have strong pricing power, but there's only so much Altria can do when fewer people are buying its products each year. And while on! is showing solid growth, it's still a small piece of the overall revenue puzzle. From a valuation perspective, the company trades at a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 11.5 based on the analyst consensus for 2025. That's much cheaper than its former unit, Philip Morris International, but I much prefer its international counterpart given its strong growth drivers. Overall, Altria is a solid dividend play. But with the stock at a six-year high and its core business continuing to see big volume declines, I wouldn't be a buyer of Atria at current levels. Should you invest $1,000 in Altria Group right now? Before you buy stock in Altria Group, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Altria Group wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $624,823!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,064,820!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,019% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 178% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 29, 2025 Geoffrey Seiler has positions in Philip Morris International. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends FactSet Research Systems. The Motley Fool recommends Philip Morris International. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Altria Has a Big Dividend Yield, but Is It Sustainable? was originally published by The Motley Fool Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Yahoo
3 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Indian rupee seen under pressure on US tariff worries, RBI policy in focus
By Dharamraj Dhutia and Jaspreet Kalra MUMBAI (Reuters) -The rupee is likely to stay under pressure this week as concerns over steep U.S. tariffs on Indian exports linger, while the Reserve Bank of India's upcoming policy decision also looms large over the currency and government bonds. The rupee closed at 87.54 against the U.S. dollar on Friday, down 1.2% for the week, pressured by persistent foreign portfolio outflows and a 25% levy on Indian exports. While the local unit is hovering near its weakest level since February, fresh tariff announcements on dozens of U.S. trading partners also pushed other Asian currencies to multi-month lows. The dollar index, meanwhile, posted its best weekly gain since 2022 as expectations of a U.S. rate cut in September faded. The odds of a reduction in September rose to 80% after data released on Friday showed that the U.S. economy added fewer jobs than expected, while the unemployment rate rose to 4.2%. Meanwhile, the maturity of a $5 billion dollar-rupee buy/sell swap conducted by the RBI earlier this year will be in focus on Monday. "It would be prudent to break the swap into delivery and rollover. The rupee has probably seen its worst for this quarter and some support will bring it to a desirable level, while not disturbing liquidity, said Alok Singh, group head of treasury at CSB Bank. Traders expect the rupee to trade between 87.00 and 87.80 this week and reckon that the central bank may continue to intervene to limit excessive volatility. Meanwhile, India's 10-year benchmark 6.33% 2035 bond yield, settled at 6.3680% last week, up 2 basis points (bps). Traders anticipate the yield will remain in the 6.33%-6.38% band till the RBI's policy decision on Wednesday. The range could be tested on either side, depending on policymakers' decision and guidance. Although some market participants expect a rate cut, a majority of economists polled by Reuters believe RBI will hold rates steady this time. "While it is a close call, our bias remains for a 25 bps rate cut at the August meeting," Citi said. A drop in India's retail inflation to a more-than-six-year low in June, coupled with expectations that it may slip to a record low in July, have heightened hopes of a rate cut. However, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra last month said that the bar for further easing is now higher than it would have been if the stance was still "accommodative". The central bank slashed rates by a steeper-than-expected 50 bps in June and shifted its policy stance to "neutral" from "accommodative". "As the RBI awaits the impact of the large easing it has already done, we believe it will stay put on repo rate changes on 6 August," HSBC said in a note. Key Factors: India ** July HSBC services PMI and composite PMI - August 5, Tuesday (10:30 a.m.) ** Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy decision - August 6, Wednesday (10:00 a.m.)(Reuters poll - no change) U.S. ** June factory orders - August 4, Monday (7:30 p.m. IST) ** June international trade - August 5, Tuesday (6:00 p.m. IST) ** July S&P Global composite PMI final - August 5, Tuesday (7:15 p.m. IST) ** July S&P Global services PMI final - August 5, Tuesday (7:15 p.m. IST) ** July ISM non-manufacturing PMI - August 5, Tuesday (7:30 p.m. IST) ** Initial weekly jobless claims for week to July 28 - August 7, Thursday (6:00 p.m. IST) Sign in to access your portfolio
CBS News
5 minutes ago
- CBS News
Republic employees vote to continue trash collector strike
On Sunday, Republic employees voted to continue the strike that has lasted five weeks already and left cities and towns struggling to remove trash from their streets. The trash collectors at Republic, part of Teamsters Local Union 25, walked off the job July 1, over negotiations about wages, health insurance and other issues, leaving 14 Massachusetts communities without trash collection. Teamsters Local Union 25 President Tom Mari claimed, Republic has disrespected employees and refused to meet for "more than 15 days." The union reviewed an offer made by the company on July 18 before Republic employees voted by secret ballot to reject the offer and continue the strike. "The decision to stay on strike carried by 93%. It was a fantastic display of commitment after five weeks of the strike. In fact, a larger percentage of employees voted to continue the strike today than voted to strike on July 1," Mari said. The strike has left many communities struggling with piles of garbage and recycling, forcing them to take action. About three weeks into the strike, the communities of Canton, Danvers, Gloucester, Beverly, Peabody and Malden brought suit to force Republic to pick up the garbage. Also, earlier this month, Governor Maura Healey called on Republic to cut a deal with employees and end the strike, saying, "Republic Services needs to come to the table and reach a fair deal - it's time to get people back to work and resume services to our communities as soon as possible." The town of Peabody even wrote a letter to Bill Gates asking for his help to end the strike. Republic has contracts for trash pickup in 14 cities and towns across Massachusetts and with businesses in other communities, including Newton and Boston. WBZ-TV asked Republic to comment on the allegation that they have not met to negotiate with employees for 15 days but has not heard back yet.
