Altria vs Universal
Add, change or remove companies; up to four.
The short version
- Altria is the larger business, with $23.3B of revenue in fiscal 2025 against $2.9B for Universal, about 8.1 times as much.
- Universal grew revenue faster (−1.3%, against −3.1%).
- Altria kept more of each dollar of sales as operating profit (42.5% operating margin, against 5.8%).
- Altria turned more of its sales into free cash flow (39.0% FCF margin, against 2.8%).
- Altria earned a higher return on the capital invested in it (39.2%, against 4.0%).
- Investors pay more for each dollar of Universal’s earnings: a P/E of 51.7x against 15.6x for Altria.
| Latest fiscal year | MO · FY25 | UVV · FY26 |
|---|---|---|
| Size | ||
| Market cap | $124.1B | $986M |
| Revenue | $23.3B | $2.9B |
| Free cash flow | $9.1B | $80.3M |
| Net income | $6.9B | $32.6M |
| Growth | ||
| Revenue growth | −3.1% | −1.3% |
| 5-year growth | −2.3% | 8.0% |
| Share count change | −2.0% | 0.2% |
| Profitability | ||
| Gross margin | 62.5% | 16.4% |
| Operating margin | 42.5% | 5.8% |
| Net margin | 29.8% | 1.1% |
| FCF margin | 39.0% | 2.8% |
| Return on capital | 39.2% | 4.0% |
| Return on equity | — | 2.3% |
| Balance sheet | ||
| Net debt | $21.2B | $842M |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 2.1x | 3.8x |
| Dividends and buybacks | $8.0B | $81.3M |
| Valuation & quality | ||
| P/E | 15.6x | 51.7x |
| Piotroski F-score | 7 | 5 |
Revenue
FY17
MO $25.6B
UVV $2.0B
FY18
MO $25.4B
UVV $2.0B
FY19
MO $25.1B
UVV $2.2B
FY20
MO $26.2B
UVV $1.9B
FY21
MO $26.0B
UVV $2.0B
FY22
MO $25.1B
UVV $2.1B
FY23
MO $24.5B
UVV $2.5B
FY24
MO $24.0B
UVV $2.7B
FY25
MO $23.3B
UVV $2.9B
FY26
MO —
UVV $2.9B
MO
UVV
Operating margin
FY17
MO 37.5%
UVV 8.7%
FY18
MO 35.9%
UVV 8.5%
FY19
MO 41.1%
UVV 7.3%
FY20
MO 41.6%
UVV 6.7%
FY21
MO 44.4%
UVV 7.5%
FY22
MO 47.5%
UVV 7.7%
FY23
MO 47.2%
UVV 7.1%
FY24
MO 46.8%
UVV 8.2%
FY25
MO 42.5%
UVV 8.0%
FY26
MO —
UVV 5.8%
MO
UVV
Free cash flow
FY17
MO $4.7B
UVV $215M
FY18
MO $8.2B
UVV $47.2M
FY19
MO $7.6B
UVV $126M
FY20
MO $8.2B
UVV −$24.3M
FY21
MO $8.2B
UVV $154M
FY22
MO $8.1B
UVV −$8.3M
FY23
MO $9.1B
UVV −$65.2M
FY24
MO $8.6B
UVV −$141M
FY25
MO $9.1B
UVV $264M
FY26
MO —
UVV $80.3M
MO
UVV
Return on capital
FY17
MO 38.3%
UVV 7.8%
FY18
MO 20.2%
UVV 7.8%
FY19
MO 14.5%
UVV 7.6%
FY20
MO 23.6%
UVV 5.6%
FY21
MO 30.3%
UVV 6.7%
FY22
MO 45.8%
UVV 6.2%
FY23
MO 45.5%
UVV 7.9%
FY24
MO 48.0%
UVV 7.8%
FY25
MO 39.2%
UVV 7.2%
FY26
MO —
UVV 4.0%
MO
UVV
Each company's latest fiscal year; fiscal years end in different months. The best value in each row is highlighted where higher (or lower) is clearly better. Not investment advice.