America’s Best Dividend Stock Thrives in Market Downturn

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Aug 5, 6:59AM EDT · Published Aug 3, 10:44AM EDT

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America’s Best Dividend Stock Thrives in Market Downturn — © Jamie Grill / Tetra images via Getty Images

24/7 Wall St. Insights

Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO | MO Price Prediction) is the best large dividend stock traded on any American market.
The stock has risen 10% in the past month, while the Nasdaq has dropped 3%.
Also: Dividend legends to hold forever.

Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO), the big tobacco company, has a stock that has risen 10% in the past month, while Nasdaq has dropped 3%. Altria is also the best large dividend stock traded on any American market. It has a 7.7% yield, strong cash flow, and a rock-solid balance sheet.

Altria stock’s attractiveness has been acknowledged several times this year. Recently, Investor Place added it to a list of attractive holdings, including “3 Undervalued Blue-Chip Stocks to Buy at a P/E of Less Than 10.” Even 24/7 Wall St. has mentioned the strength of the shares.

Altria has raised its dividend for 54 years in a row. Its payout ratio is over 80%, which means 80% of the company’s earnings go to shareholders.

Altria left its guidance intact when it announced its most recent quarterly earnings. “We reaffirm our 2024 full-year adjusted diluted EPS guidance range of $5.05 to $5.17, representing a growth rate of 2% to 4.5% from a base of $4.95 in 2023.”

In that quarter, revenue slipped 2% yearly to $5.6 billion. Net income surged 19% to $2.1 billion, and 88% came from cigarette sales. Altria also had $3.6 billion of cash and cash equivalents on its balance sheet, and the current portion of its long-term debt was zero.

There is a theory that Altria keeps a high dividend to attract investors to a tobacco company. Each investor will need to decide on this issue individually.

Want $500 in Passive Income: Invest This Much in Altria Stock

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.