Altria Group (NYSE:MO) has been one of the best investments an investor could make at pretty much any point in the last few decades. The growth of MO (adjusting for the spin-offs) has been exceptional and it occurs despite focusing on very few products and having little innovation prior to the introduction of the "E-vapor" products. The rapid growth in share price goes along with a dividend that has been growing consistently for decades. If there are two words that sum up Altria Group, it would be dividend growth. If there was a third word, it would have to be cancer. Fortunately for investors, it hasn't been cancer for the portfolio.
MO Battling Against MO
Altria Group is stuck in an incredibly difficult position where it is funding campaigns to reduce smoking while deriving most of its revenue from smoking. On a moral level, those campaigns have been a great success. There has been a dramatic reduction in the level of teenage tobacco use:
