Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) Q4 2023 Results Conference Call February 1, 2024 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Mac Livingston - Vice President, Investor Relations

Billy Gifford - Chief Executive Officer

Sal Mancuso - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Matt Smith - Stifel

Pamela Kaufman - Morgan Stanley

Bonnie Herzog - Goldman Sachs

Callum Elliott - Bernstein

Pallav Mittal - Barclays

Jennifer Maloney - Wall Street Journal

Operator

Good day everyone, and welcome to the Altria Group 2023 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Earnings Conference Call. Today’s call is scheduled to last about one hour, including remarks by Altria’s management and a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Representatives of the investment community and media on the call will be able to ask questions following the conclusion of the prepared remarks.

I would now like to turn the call over to Mac Livingston, Vice President of Investor Relations for Altria Client Services. Please go ahead, sir.

Mac Livingston

Thanks, Jamie. Good morning, and thank you for joining us. This morning, Billy Gifford, Altria’s CEO; and Sal Mancuso, our CFO, will discuss Altria’s fourth quarter and full year business results. Earlier today, we issued a press release providing our results. The release, presentation, quarterly metrics and our latest corporate responsibility reports are all available at altria.com.

During our call today, unless otherwise stated, we’re comparing results to the same period in 2022. Our remarks contain forward-looking and cautionary statements and projections of future results. Please review the forward-looking and cautionary statements section at the end of today’s earnings release for various factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from projections.

Future dividend payments and share repurchases remain subject to the discretion of Altria's Board. Altria reports its financial results in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Today's call will contain various operating results on both a reported and adjusted basis.

Adjusted results exclude special items that affect comparisons with reported results. Descriptions of these non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliations are included in today's earnings release and on our website altria.com.

Finally, all references in today's remarks to tobacco consumers or consumers within a specific tobacco category or segment, refer to existing adult tobacco consumers 21 years of age or older.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Billy.

Billy Gifford

Thanks, Mac. Good morning. And thank you for joining us.

It was a pivotal year for Altria, as we made significant progress in pursuit of our vision, by enhancing our smoke-free product portfolio, while our businesses performed well in a challenging environment. We grew adjusted diluted earnings per share by 2.3% and continued our long history of rewarding shareholders by delivering nearly $7.8 billion in dividends and share repurchases.