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Text: During our call today, unless otherwise stated, we're comparing results to the same period in 2020.
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.
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.
We're off to a strong start to the year and believe our businesses are on track to deliver against their full-year plans.
Against a challenging comparison, our tobacco businesses performed well in the first quarter and we continue to make progress advancing our noncombustible product portfolio.
We now have full global ownership of on!
oral nicotine pouches as we recently closed transactions to acquire the remaining 20% global interest.
We are excited about the opportunity we have with on!
to convert smokers and we have talented teams supporting the global plans for the brand.
Before discussing our first-quarter results in more detail, we would like to honor the memory of Tom Farrell, our late chairman of the board.
Tom served 13 distinguished years on our board, offered valuable insights and guidance during his tenure, and was a true visionary.
We will miss his leadership, contributions, and friendship.
The board will appoint a new chair at its meeting following our Annual Shareholders Meeting in May.
Let's now turn to our first-quarter results.
Our first-quarter adjusted diluted earnings per share declined 1.8%, primarily driven by unfavorable timing of interest expense and a higher adjusted income tax rate.
In the smokeable products segment, we continue to execute our strategy of maximizing profitability in combustibles while appropriately balancing investments in Marlboro, with funding the growth of noncombustible products.
Segment adjusted OCI margins expanded and Marlboro continued its retail share momentum from the back half of 2020.
For volumes, reported smokeable segment domestic cigarette volume declined 12% in the first quarter, reflecting year-over-year trade inventory movements, one fewer shipping day and other factors.
When adjusted for these factors, cigarette volume declined by an estimated 3.5%.
We believe that in the first quarter of 2020, wholesalers built inventories by approximately 900 million units, driven in part by COVID-19 dynamics, compared with a depletion of approximately 300 million units in the first quarter of 2021.
At the industry level, we estimate that first-quarter adjusted domestic cigarette volume declined 2%.
Looking at smoker retail dynamics, we estimated that total cigarette trips in the first quarter remained below pre-pandemic levels.
Also, estimated expenditures per trip remained elevated when compared to pre-pandemic levels and were steady sequentially.
We are continuing to monitor the impacts from external factors on tobacco consumer purchasing patterns and behavior.
In March, the federal government passed a third stimulus package.
An increasing number of people became vaccinated and consumability improved sharply.
We're keeping a close eye on the tobacco consumer and we will continue to provide our insights on the underlying factors as the year progresses.
Moving to our noncombustible products.
We are pleased to now have full ownership of on!
oral nicotine pouches globally.
We completed transactions in December and April to acquire the remaining 20% of the global on!
business for approximately $250 million.
When we made the initial 80% acquisition in 2019, the oral nicotine pouch category in the U.S. was rapidly growing off of a small base.
Subsequently, oral nicotine pouch growth has exceeded our original estimates.
In the first quarter of 2021, we estimate that retail share for all nicotine pouches was approximately 13% of the total oral tobacco category, double its share in the year ago period.
We expect continued growth from the oral nicotine pouch products and estimate that category volume in the U.S. will grow at a compounded annual growth rate of approximately 25% over the next five years.
Since 2019, Helix, supported by the enterprise, significantly increased on!
manufacturing capacity, broadened retail distribution, grew tobacco consumer awareness, and followed PMTAs for the entire product portfolio.
Helix achieved an annualized manufacturing capacity of 50 million cans by the end of last year, and as of the end of the first quarter, on!
was sold in approximately 93,000 stores.
In the U.S. market, on!
In the first quarter, on!
share of the total oral tobacco category grew significantly to 1.7%.
On a 12-month moving basis, in-store selling and providing point-of-sale data, on!
retail share was 3.1%, an increase of seven-tenth from the 2020 full-year share.
Going forward, we intend to report on!
share of the total U.S. oral tobacco category as Helix expects to be in stores covering 90% of the industry's oral tobacco volume by midyear.
Our primary focus continues to be on increasing on!
growth in the U.S. Internationally, we see potential to strengthen on!
in the Swedish market.
We also see longer-term prospects in Europe to expand on!
and gain consumer feedback on potential noncombustible products for the U.S. To explore these additional opportunities, we have expanded the international on!
presents a compelling noncombustible alternative for smokers and we look forward to supporting their conversion journey.
We estimate that total category volume increased 24% versus the year ago period.
As a reminder, in Q1 2020, the FDA restricted the sales of all flavored e-vapor products among pod systems with the exception of tobacco and menthol.
Sequentially, we estimate that the category volume increased 7% as competitive marketplace activity continued.
As a result of these dynamics, JUUL's first-quarter retail share of the total e-vapor category decreased to 33%.
We continue to believe that a responsible e-vapor category, consisting solely of FDA authorized products can play an important role in tobacco hard reduction.
As for our JUUL investment, the FTC trial is now scheduled for June of this year and we remain committed to vigorously defending our investment.
In heated tobacco, PM USA is continuing to expand IQOS and Marlboro HeatSticks.
Beginning this month, HeatSticks are available in retail stores statewide across Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
Marlboro HeatSticks retail volume and share continued to grow in the first quarter.
In Atlanta stores with distribution, Marlboro HeatSticks retail share of the cigarette category was 1.1%, an increase of two-tenth sequentially and in Charlotte, HeatSticks retail share was 1%, an increase of three-tenth sequentially.
Last month, PM USA began selling the IQOS 3 device, which offers a longer battery life and faster recharging, as compared to the 2.4 version.
The new device is being offered through device and HeatSticks bundles and through the lending program, which has been effective at generating trial and driving purchase.
We're encouraged to see that many consumers are upgrading their 2.4 devices, representing approximately 25% of all IQOS 3 device sales in the first quarter.
Along with geographic expansion, PM USA is increasing the use of its digital platforms like Marlboro.com and getiqos.com to engage with smokers and communicate the benefits of IQOS, including the MRTP claim on the IQOS 2.4 system.
For Marlboro.com, IQOS content is now available nationwide.
Smokers can sign up to receive communications and be notified when IQOS is available in their area.
PM USA is also using its Marlboro's Rewards program to drive IQOS awareness and value delivery.
Smokers can earn Marlboro rewards points by learning about IQOS and can also redeem their points for discounts on the IQOS device.
cigarette volume by year end.
We are making progress in driving awareness and availability of on!
and IQOS while investing in future innovative noncombustible products and we continue to acquire more tobacco consumer insights to inform our strategies to actively transition smokers to our noncombustible portfolio.
Our smokeable products segment continues to support our vision, generating significant cash that can be invested in noncombustible products and return to shareholders.
Turning to our financial outlook.
We reaffirm our 2021 guidance to deliver adjusted diluted earnings per share in a range of $4.49 to $4.62.
This range represents an adjusted diluted earnings per share growth rate of 3% to 6% from a $4.36 base in 2020.
The guidance includes continued investments to support the transition of adult smokers to a noncombustible future.
We will continue to monitor various factors that could impact our guidance.
Our employees continue to drive the success of our businesses.
They've risen to the challenge together to deliver results and are supporting each other and their communities.
Over the past years, the challenges associated with the pandemic have been compounded by the continued social injustice and in equities that black and brown Americans still face every day.
And the Asian American community is hurting as violent and hateful attacks on Asians skyrocketed.
We condemn any form of hatred and discrimination against any person.
Through our Asian, black, and brown employees, we will continue to stand with you and we stand for you.
We recently released our report on supporting our people and communities, which details the many ways we're making progress, enhancing our culture and positively impacting our communities.
It is part of a series of corporate responsibility progress reports that we are issuing this year, and it is available on altria.com.
Moving to our results.
Our tobacco businesses continue to perform well in the first quarter.
The smokeable products segment delivered over $2.3 billion in adjusted OCI and expanded adjusted OCI margins by 2.2 percentage points to 57.5%.
PM USA's revenue growth management framework supported the segment's strong net price realization of 8% for the quarter.
We continue to be pleased with Marlboro's performance and category leadership.
In the first quarter, Marlboro's retail share was 43.1%, an increase of four-tenth versus prior year.
We believe that Marlboro is continuing to benefit from smoker preferences for familiar products during disruptive times and is lapping the year ago comparison quarter where we observed the older consumers coming back to cigarettes from e-vapor.
In the first quarter, Marlboro's price gap to the lowest effective price cigarette increased to 37%, primarily driven by heavy competitive promotional activity in the branded discount segment.
Despite this activity, branded discount share declined by four-tenth in the first quarter as deep discount gained share.
The total discount segment retail share was 25.3%, an increase of one-tenth versus the year ago period.
In cigars, Black & Mild continued its long-standing leadership in the profitable tipped cigar segment.
Middleton's reported cigar shipment volume increased over 11% in the first quarter.
Oral tobacco products segment, adjusted OCI grew by 3.1%, and adjusted OCI margins declined by 0.9 percentage points to 72.1%.
Adjusted OCI results were driven primarily by higher pricing, partially offset by higher investments behind on!
Total reported Oral Tobacco Products segment volume increased 0.6%, driven by on!
When adjusted for trade inventory movements, calendar differences and other factors, segment volume increased by an estimated 0.5%.
First-quarter retail share for the oral tobacco products segment was 48.1%, down 2.3 percentage points due to the continued growth of oral nicotine pouches.
Copenhagen continue to be the leading MST brand and on!
gained traction in the oral nicotine pouches.
Michelle's first-quarter adjusted OCI increased approximately 46% to $19 million, driven primarily by higher pricing and lower costs.
And in beer, we recorded $190 million of adjusted equity earnings in the first quarter, which was unchanged from the year-ago period and represents Altria's share of API fourth-quarter 2020 results.
Moving to our equity investment in Cronos.
We recorded an adjusted loss of $27 million representing Altria's share of Cronos' fourth-quarter 2020 results.
We continue to support our investment in Cronos by advocating for a federally legal, regulated, and responsible U.S. cannabis market.
We joined the recently launched Coalition for Cannabis Policy, Education, and Regulation.
This coalition is comprised of members across diverse industries and public policy experts who plan to inform the development of comprehensive cannabis policy that prevents underage use, advance of science, creates quality and safety standards and addresses social inequity.
And finally, on capital allocation, we paid approximately $1.6 billion in dividends and repurchased approximately 6.9 million shares, totaling $325 million in the first quarter.
We have approximately $1.7 billion remaining under the currently authorized $2 billion share buyback program, which we expect to complete by June 30, 2022.
Our balance sheet remains strong and as of the end of the first quarter, our debt-to-EBITDA ratio was 2.5 times.
In the first quarter, we executed a series of transactions to take advantage of favorable market conditions to adjust our debt maturity profile and extend the weighted average maturity of our debt.
We issued new long-term notes totaling $5.5 billion and repurchased over $5 billion in outstanding long-term notes.
In May, we expect to retire $1.5 billion of notes coming due with available cash.
We've also posted our usual quarterly metrics, which include pricing, inventory and other items.
Let's open the question-and-answer period.
Operator, do we have any questions?

user
compname reports 2021 first-quarter results; reaffirms 2021 earnings guidance; acquires remaining 20% of global business.
reaffirms fy adjusted earnings per share view $4.49 to $4.62.
reaffirms guidance for 2021 full-year adjusted diluted earnings per share to be in range of $4.49 to $4.62, representing growth rate of 3% to 6%.
as of march 31, 2021, fair value of altria's juul investment was $1.5 billion.
abi did not provide earnings guidance for 2021 given continued uncertainty.
expects 2021 adjusted diluted earnings per share growth in last three quarters of year.

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