Marlboro maker Altria to sell over $2B in AB InBev stock

Altria Group (MO) — the parent company of Marlboro cigarettes — is selling over $2 billion worth of Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD) stock from its stake in the beer company. AB InBev plans to buy back up to $200 million of these shares.

Yahoo Finance Live monitors the stock performance of the Bud Light parent company following this news.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Editor's note: This article was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

Video transcript

JARED BLIKRE: All right, we got to talk about AB InBev shares because they are moving to the downside today. This comes after the Marlboro cigarette maker Altria is selling over $2 billion worth of its shares in the beer maker. And this is just a portion of Altria's shares. It owns about 10% of the company.

And in fact, AB InBev has said they're going to buy about $200 billion-- or $200 million worth of these shares. So that's going to be a share buyback. So a bit of confidence by the company there, but this really is a deleveraging story by AB-- some of these companies like Altria of their stakes in this maker.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah, separately here the brewer also agreeing to buy back $3.3 million ordinary shares here from Altria for $200 million. The offering, the buyback reducing Altria's stake here ultimately from about 10% to 8.1%. This is all according to the statement here.

But again, two top trending tickers here on Yahoo Finance. You're looking at AB InBev those shares off about 5% in today's trading action. You can see over the past two years, we're not too far from where we were just two years ago. Certainly, a lot of volatility within this space, lots of questions about demand, what exactly that looks like.

Obviously, the massive factor of the boycott of Bud Light having a real impact on shares over the last year. But again, this at least moving the stock today. And certainly, a name to keep on your radar with the top trending ticker on Yahoo Finance.

JARED BLIKRE: Yeah and I do I do have some street commentary. Here is RBC, James Edwardes Jones sees the announcement as a negative for sentiment and that it's likely to act as a short-term break on AB InBev share price. But it is a minimal longer-term significance saying the stake sale is not surprising, but it would have welcomed Altria divesting its entire stake to remove concerns about some residual overhang on the stock, Seana.

SEANA SMITH: All right, again shares off about 5% in today's trading day.