Altria (MO) is one of the largest tobacco companies in the world and the largest in the US. It owns the right to sell many of the most popular brands like Marlboro, Parliament, Benson & Hedges and Virginia Slims in the US. While it's making efforts to grow its business beyond cigarettes, the vast majority of its sales, approximately 85%, comes from cigarettes each year.

Tobacco companies are often described as the ultimate recession-resistant stock because smoking often increases during poor economic times. This usually leads to improving stock prices. However, this year tobacco companies have seen their stock prices decline along with everything in late February and March, but they have lagged behind the market as most stock prices have recovered. While there's no doubt that the number of smokers is declining, so far tobacco companies have been able to offset this decline with price increases. This has provided tobacco companies in general and Altria specifically the cash flow to support increasing dividends and share buybacks sufficient to make it a very good investment.

In order to become less dependent on cigarettes, Altria has invested in various other products like smokeless tobacco, wine, and beer. It also made a big investment in vaping producer JUUL.

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