With less than one calendar quarter in the books, the 2024 stock market has already served up a wild ride for investors. The “Magnificent 7” mega-caps are delivering wildly divergent performances, bitcoin (BTCUSD) is racing to multi-year highs, and both oil futures (CLJ24) and gold prices (GCJ24) have been surging right alongside stock prices. As Wall Street prepares to walk headfirst into the latest policy forecast from the Fed this Wednesday, investors are navigating a macroeconomic minefield. Perhaps that's why value plays and dividend stocks have started to regain some popularity among anxious investors, particularly as “bubble” chatter grows around outperforming AI stocks.
In this environment, Altria Group, Inc. (MO) stands out as one stock that's not only a Dividend King - with a history of over 50 years of consistent dividend growth - but is also attractively priced at current levels. While the old-school company only managed one mere mention of "artificial intelligence" in its latest earnings release (and under the “cautionary statements" section, at that), here's a closer look at why investors might want to consider scooping up MO shares at current levels.
