Richmond, Virginia-based Altria Group's cost-cutting measures and higher prices of cigarettes brought about a declined fourth-quarter profit, which falls in line with the estimates by Wall Street analysts.

The 69 percent fall in the quarterly profit, bringing forth the figures of $679 million, or 33 cents a share, is a pale comparison with the year-earlier figures of $2.19 billion, or $1.03 cents a share - resulting from the company's overall operations, inclusive of Philip Morris International.

However, the company's profit from continuing operations increased to the tune of 5.7 percent.

With the one-time items excluded, the earnings of Altria stood at 37 cents a share, with matched the average estimates compiled by Reuters Estimates. The fourth-quarter revenue of the cigarette maker increased 3 percent - from $4.53 billion to $4.65 billion.

In effecting the required finances for its purchase of smokeless tobacco company UST Inc, Altria - the parent of Marlboro cigarette maker Philip Morris USA - announced on Thursday that it was shelving its share repurchase plan, largely due the ongoing economic crisis, which marks a time when maintaining the company's flexibility is of utmost importance.