Quick Read
The “dividend kings”: are companies that have raised dividends for 50 years in a row. They are supposed to be lazy stocks like Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL) and Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO). One is up more than a performance leader of the Magnificent Seven. Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) is up 13%, just above the market. Altria (NYSE: MO), the huge tobacco company, has posted a 24% surge this year.
In a world in which tech companies were the stock market leaders for over two years, many investors want to dodge the risk of AI, which is causing America’s mega tech companies to drain their balance sheets of cash and forcing them to use debt to raise money. The economy overall has been less than stable, with inflation at moderately high levels, employment gains mediocre, and a war in the Middle East. In the meantime, smokers continue to smoke, and Altria has started to move into tobacco products beyond cigarettes.
Altria’s top brand, which accounts for over 90% of its sales, is Marlboro. It used to be listed among the world’s most valuable brands and was sometimes in the top 10. It has been dropped completely from those lists, likely because it is tobacco, which, because of its health effects, is shied away from
Altia’s dividend yield is over 5.5%. It has raised its dividend 60 times in the last 56 years.
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Regardless of these benefits, the company remains a difficult investment for many because of its products. The plain fact is that the CDC reports that 480,000 Americans die from smoking every year. Worldwide, the figure is above 8 million. It is the largest preventable cause of death globally. Altria is a “sin stock,” a term usually applied to all tobacco and alcohol companies.
