CORPORATESISSUER COMMENT 14 SEPTEMBER 2015ALTRIA GROUP INC. (MO)Moodys Senior Unsecured Rating Baa1Moodys Outlook STABond-Implied Rating Baa1CDS-Implied Rating A1EDF-Implied Rating AaaAs of 9/10/2015ANALYST CONTACTSAllerton G. Smith 212-553-4058 Sr Dir-Sr Research Analyst allerton.smith@moodys.comABOUT CAPITAL MARKETS RESEARCHAnalyses from Moodys Capital Markets Research, Inc. (CMR) focus on explaining signals from the credit and equity markets. The publications address whether market signals, in the opinion of the groups analysts, accurately reflect the risks and investment opportunities associated with issuers and sectors. CMR research thus complements the fundamentally-oriented research offered by Moodys Investors Service (MIS), the rating agency.CMR is part of Moodys Analytics, which is one of the two operating businesses of Moodys Corporation. Moodys Analytics (including CMR) is legally and organizationally separated from Moodys Investors Service and operates on an arms length basis from the ratings business. CMR does not provide investment advisory services or products.View the CMR FAQ Contact the CMR team Follow us on TwitterMoodys Analytics markets and distributes all Moodys Capital Markets Research, Inc. materials. Moodys Capital Markets Research, Inc. is a subsidiary of Moodys Corporation. Moodys Analytics does not provide investment advisory services or products. For further detail, please see the last page.Market Signals ReviewAltria Group Inc.: Two Market-Implied Ratings Advance Over the last year Altria's bond- and CDS-implied ratings both progressed.The bond-implied rating rose by one notch from Baa2 to Baa1 at present (Figure 1). It advanced to A3 on several different dates over the last 12 months but was unable to sustain that level for long.The companys CDS-implied rating is A1, up one notch from A2 a year ago. It rose to Aa2 on multiple occasions briefly over the last 12 months. The Aa2 is the best CDS-implied rating attained by Altria over the last five years.FIGURE 1. ALTRIA: MOODYS AND MARKET-IMPLIED RATINGS, LAST YEAR (DAILY DATA)MOODY'S ANALYTICS CORPORATES2 14 SEPTEMBER 2015 MARKET SIGNALS REVIEW: ALTRIA GROUP INC.: TWO MARKET-IMPLIED RATINGS ADVANCEThe bond-implied rating rose by one notch from Baa2 to Baa1 at present (Figure 1). It advanced to A3 on several different dates over the last 12 months but was unable to sustain that level for long.The companys CDS-implied rating is A1, up one notch from A2 a year ago. It rose to Aa2 on multiple occasions briefly over the last 12 months. The Aa2 is the best CDS-implied rating attained by Altria over the last five years.Altrias EDF-implied rating has been Aaa since December 9, 2011. Aaa is the best EDF-implied rating attainable.According to our ratings gap-conditioned transition matrices, companies rated Baa1 with a bond-implied rating of Baa1 outperformed the broad market 31% of the time over the following 12 months, ...
