Altria Stock: Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Altria (NYSE: MO) is the type of company that can bring emotion into the investment process. A so-called "sin" stock, investors need to consider if they want to support a company that produces cigarettes. If you can get beyond that fact, though, you still aren't done with the buy, sell, or hold decision on this stock.
Altria's business has a complex story to tell and there's both good and bad involved for investors.
From a business perspective, Altria has a big problem. Cigarettes are generally seen by the public as a bad product, and fewer and fewer people in the United States are smoking them. Notably, after separating from Philip Morris International (NYSE: PM), Altria only sells cigarettes in the United States. While it has the most popular brand in the U.S. market (Marlboro), it doesn't benefit from the diversification benefits of selling into multiple geographic regions that may have different demand profiles. The company is simply facing an ongoing decline in demand.
Source Fool.com
