Altria Group, Inc. (MO)

Go PM.

TOO MANY LEAGAL HURDLES ......WILL FOREVER BE FIGHTING IN THE COURTS.....EVER GROWING TAXATION ON THE PRODUCT....SMOKING POPULATION NOT GROWING ANYMORE.....CONSTANT EVOLVING LEGAL LIMITATIONS OF SMOKING BY CITY,COUNTY,STATE,FEDERAL GOVT'S. NOT TO MENTION EMPLOYER RESTRICTIONS. FUTURE QUARTERLY GROWTH IS HARD TO ACCOMPLISH IN THIS MINE FIELD

fool

Evil elements:
Among tobacco companies, Philip Morris is notorious. Now called Altria, it is the world’s largest and most profitable cigarette corporation and maker of Marlboro, Virginia Slims, Parliament, Basic and many other brands of cigarettes.

Documents uncovered in a lawsuit filed against the tobacco industry by the state of Minnesota showed that Philip Morris and other leading tobacco corporations knew very well of the dangers of tobacco products and the addictiveness of nicotine. To this day, Philip Morris deceives consumers about the harm of its products by offering light, mild and low-tar cigarettes that give consumers the illusion these brands are “healthier” than traditional cigarettes.

Although the company says it doesn’t want kids to smoke, it spends millions of dollars every day marketing and promoting cigarettes to youth. Overseas, it has even hired underage “Marlboro girls” to distribute free cigarettes to other children and sponsored concerts where cigarettes were handed out to minors.

As anti-tobacco campaigns and government regulations are slowing tobacco use in Western countries, Philip Morris has aggressively moved into developing country markets, where smoking and smoking-related deaths are on the rise. Preliminary numbers released by the World Health Organization predict global deaths due to smoking-related illnesses will nearly double by 2020, with more than three-quarters of those deaths in the developing world.

From http://karim.gnn.tv/blogs/11333/Report_The_14_Most_Evil_Corporations

Purely a CAPS pick.

This won't beat the S&P 500 going forward. It's got virtually no beta and minimal growth opportunities without PM.

With that said, it's a great company that won't be going anywhere. This is an anchor in my real money portfolio.

Smoking tobacco kills. Please don't support a company that causes hundreds of thousands of deaths in the US and world. Don't profit from other's misery. I'm rating this company negative in response to an interview on NPR this morning with a former executive Steve Parish of Phillip Morris (Now Altria).

In this interview with Mr. Parish, he talked about how Phillip Morris went from fighting the FDA, to supporting moving American tobacco industries under FDA regulation. Stating that its been an increasingly difficult environment for the companies to fight regulation, the most important thing to him and Phillip Morris was reducing the damage and deaths caused by smoking.

The interviewer failed to call him out on this statement, which is nothing but falsehoods.

If the tobacco companies really wanted to reduce deaths by smoking, they wouldn't go for incremental and slow regulations - they would simply close down their businesses. Their product causes cancer and death. They promote the use of this product which causes cancer and death. They directly are a cause of 400,000 deaths due to smoking. If I believed in heaven and hell, then I would believe that all tobacco executives would end up in hell for what the deaths which they have perpetuated.

Instead, these executives lie to the public and probably to themselves while receiving very nice compensations. In 2007, Mr. Parish received over $900,000 for salary and 2 million in stock options, with additional incentives and pension resulting in a yearly total over 12 million. This is on par with what the other senior executives make, though the CEO made nearly 25 million total. I guess at this level of compensation, it becomes easier to overlook all the death, damage, and pain that their leadership causes in the world.

The truth about the FDA bill which recently passed is that it also directly limits market competition in the US from tobacco companies. While current tobacco companies that sell in the US are grandfathered in, no new tobacco companies will be allowed to sell in the US. Further, by reducing advertising from these companies, those that currently lead have a great advantage over smaller companies. Guess who leads the pack? Altria/Phillip Morris. While they play up the benevolent actions of their corporation in supporting this law, less publicized is the tremendous advantages this law will place their corporation in, effective building a moat that protects their market share forever in the US. There was no good will in the corporation's decision to support this bill.

CAPS blogs in general are very lacking in questioning what effects the corporations have in the world. It should be very clear that Altria/Phillip Morris is a company that has very detrimental effects on the world and society. Back when the recession started, many Fool members up-thumbed this corporation as a recession proof industry that is a great safe haven. I found this both disturbing and sad. These are not corporations that people should support, rather we should be working to end corporations such as this. When you or a family member dies of a smoking related disease - don't look back and have regrets that your money helped support this corporation.

Just not digging the smokes world right now, especially US based. Not enough international exposure. While high-paying dividends, I think it's just not going to stack up.

More taxes on tobacco

The economy and, even more so, Taxes will finally break many tobacco habits.

Lung cancer suits will eat away at profits.

Taking all the punches makes me want morepharmacy products to cushion the blow

This one may do good the next couple of quarters, but they will suffer in the long term.

When so many say outperform, how could one do the same? As Buffett says, be fearful when others are greedy.

Companes that produce products that are bad for the health have not earned a good future.

with more people quitting smoking, this will heard them. the state goverment pushing for people to quit, this will hurt.

look out after 2009

It seems tobacco stocks are out of favor. But MO has a great yield and expanding business oversear.

LOSS OF CIGARETTE MONEY.SNUFF IS NOT ENUF

Yeah yeah, I know, people have been panning MO, but this time it really is for real. With Philip Morris International in all of the high growth markets, MO is left only with a domestic market that is in long-run decline. True, smoking is addictive, and those who already do have trouble kicking the habit, but a shrinking market, a hostile regulatory and public opinion environment, and a product that naturally tends to kill off its customers is not something that I would want to invest in.