MO - Altria Group, Inc.
| Previous Close | 49.67 |
| Open | 49.86 |
| Bid | 0.00 x 1400 |
| Ask | 0.00 x 1300 |
| Day's Range | 49.71 - 50.29 |
| 52 Week Range | 42.40 - 66.04 |
| Volume | 5,804,616 |
| Avg. Volume | 7,631,923 |
| Market Cap | 93.621B |
| Beta (3Y Monthly) | 0.34 |
| PE Ratio (TTM) | 15.25 |
| EPS (TTM) | 3.28 |
| Earnings Date | Jul 30, 2019 |
| Forward Dividend & Yield | 3.20 (6.44%) |
| Ex-Dividend Date | 2019-06-13 |
| 1y Target Est | 58.27 |
- Motley Fool•9 hours ago
Better Buy: PepsiCo vs. Altria
Each faces headwinds. Does one look better set for success?
- InvestorPlace•13 hours ago
3 Sin Stocks to Buy That Are Trading at Bargain Prices
Sin stocks, especially those in tobacco industry, have been having a rocky year. Even marijuana stocks have come back down to earth, as the popular cannabis exchange-traded fund ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF (NYSEARCA:MJ) has given back a lot of its gains from the first quarter of the year.At one point in the year, MJ was up well over 40%. As of the time of this writing though, the ETF was still posting gains of 14% year-to-date, but remember that's still an underperformance relative to the S&P 500.The overall risk-on climate of the market does not completely favor the more defensive sin stocks, but there are bargains to be found across sectors. There are opportunities that should be seized when the market is looking elsewhere.InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips * 10 Stocks to Buy From This Superstar Fund As always, being selective is the key to finding stocks to buy that are long-term winners. Altria (MO)Source: Peyri Herrera via Flickr (Modified)Altria (NYSE:MO) has been hit with some regulatory headwinds. This is bound to happen in the tobacco industry, but Altria has always deftly navigated its way in such a manner that protects shareholder interests.Shares of MO stock are now flat for the year, and yields are at 6.4%. This is a good time to take a position if you have been on the sidelines. Shares are trading at 13x earnings, so from a valuation and yield standpoint, there is a comfortable margin of safety to weather whatever second-quarter earnings may bring.Regardless of what the market is doing, Altria continues to innovate and diversify its product line. MO recently announced that it had singed definitive agreements to acquire 80% ownership of certain companies that intend to commercialize on! -- an oral tobacco-derived nicotine (TDN) pouch product -- worldwide.The company remains committed to diversifying its portfolio into faster growing categories, which is what you want to see. Altria is doing all the right things to get a nice bounce in the second half of the year. Wynn Resorts (WYNN)Source: Aurlmas via Flickr (Modified)In the world of gambling, Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ:WYNN) is the gold standard both domestically in the U.S. and internationally. No one does glamour and luxury quite like the Las Vegas-based casino developer.Despite a somewhat disappointing first quarter, shares of WYNN stock have come back significantly. Last month alone, shares surged 12% with help from improvements in the Macau market. For quite some time, the growth engine has been the Chinese gambler, forced to look beyond the mainland to indulge their gaming habits.Looking ahead, while Macau will still remain the most important revenue geography in terms of total dollar amount, the market may reward growth in WYNN's latest project, the Encore Boston Harbor. This is a sizable investment in New England, which isn't a traditional gambling area. However, because of that fact, there is less competition, which could result in a higher-than-expected growth contribution. * 7 Stocks to Sell This Summer Earnings Season The Encore Boston Harbor is a $2.6 billion five-star gaming resort with a serious amount of potential. There are over 671 hotel rooms complete with extensive dining and retail opportunities, leaving investors with good odds that WYNN has better quarters ahead. Halliburton (HAL)Source: Jason Sussberg via FlickrHalliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) does not fall into the typical sin stock categories of tobacco, alcoholic beverages and casinos. While big oil and oil services companies do not obviously prey on human weakness, they do fuel our addiction to fossil fuels which does have an obvious negative impact on the larger environment. Exploitation is still occurring. From that angle, I include HAL in this group of sin stocks.Haliburton stock has had a rough few months as of late. HAL shares are down 13% while the overall market, as measured by the S&P 500, has ticked up almost 20%. After this selloff, HAL trades at just twelve and a half times earnings. It is now too cheap to ignore. The dividend yield is also over the 3% mark, sweetening the value proposition.This is a classic example of an overlooked company in a sector that has been out of favor. First-quarter earnings were notably strong, showing sequential improvement year-over-year. HAL delivered net income of $152 million or 17 cents per diluted share, in the first quarter, which was markedly higher than the $46 million or 5 cents per diluted share earned a year ago. Yet the market has chosen to overlook this.Going into second-quarter earnings, there is lots of room to surprise to the upside with the stock trading so cheaply.As of this writing, Luce Emerson was long shares of Altria. More From InvestorPlace * 2 Toxic Pot Stocks You Should Avoid * 10 Stocks to Buy From This Superstar Fund * 7 Stocks to Buy This Summer Earnings Season * 7 Marijuana Penny Stocks to Consider for Those Who Can Handle Risk The post 3 Sin Stocks to Buy That Are Trading at Bargain Prices appeared first on InvestorPlace.
- Zacks•17 hours ago
Altria (MO) Earnings Expected to Grow: Should You Buy?
Altria (MO) possesses the right combination of the two key ingredients for a likely earnings beat in its upcoming report. Get prepared with the key expectations.
- Zacks•19 hours ago
Smokeless Unit & Pricing to Boost Altria's (MO) Q2 Earnings
Altria's (MO) Q2 performance is likely to gain from RRPs, high pricing and saving initiatives.
- Zacks•2 days ago
Altria (MO) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know
In the latest trading session, Altria (MO) closed at $49.70, marking a -1.64% move from the previous day.
- Reuters•2 days ago
RPT-BUZZ-U.S. stocks weekly: More than a small step back
- Motley Fool•4 days ago
The 9 Biggest Tobacco Stocks
There aren't a huge number of U.S.-listed stocks with a tobacco focus, but these companies still combine to be a force in the global industry.
- Motley Fool•5 days ago
Is Philip Morris International an Undervalued Dividend Stock?
Will a low valuation and a high yield set a safety net under the tobacco giant’s stock?
- Market Realist•5 days ago
Philip Morris Rises Over 8% After Its Impressive Q2 Results
Philip Morris International (PM) reported its second-quarter earnings results on Thursday. The company reported adjusted EPS of $1.46.
- Zacks•5 days ago
Things You Need to Know Before FEMSA's (FMX) Q2 Earnings
FEMSA's (FMX) second-quarter 2019 results are likely to be impacted by ongoing cost headwinds, which should continue to hurt margins. However, its growth efforts might provide some respite.
- Business Wire•6 days ago
More than Half of U.S. Population Now Governed by State Laws Raising Minimum Age of Purchase for All Tobacco Products to 21
-- Altria calls for 21 to be the nationwide standard --
- Investing.com•6 days ago
Altria Rises 3%
Investing.com - Altria (NYSE:MO) rose by 3.03% to trade at $50.93 by 12:33 (16:33 GMT) on Thursday on the NYSE exchange.
- Financial Times•6 days ago
Marlboro maker bets $100m more on alternative cigarettes
Philip Morris International, the company behind Marlboro, is to spend another $100m this year developing its alternative to traditional cigarettes as a global marketing drive intensifies to convert smokers to a new generation of products. Martin King, chief financial officer, said on Thursday that extra funds would be deployed to accelerate innovation of the company’s IQOS product — a cigarette-like device that heats, rather than burns, tobacco. of IQOS in the US, are the latest sign of big tobacco ramping up investment to safeguard the industry’s future.
- InvestorPlace•7 days ago
Why $70 Looks Like a Floor for Exxon Stock
From a capital appreciation standpoint, Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) stock has been a disappointment. Over the last decade, the XOM stock price has gained 12.5%. During that period, Exxon Mobil stock has badly lagged the S&P 500, which has returned a sizzling 223%.Source: Shutterstock But for investors focused on income, XOM actually hasn't been a terrible play. Exxon Mobil's dividends have more than doubled from a total of $1.66 per share in 2009 to what should be $3.48 in 2019. Investors' total return from Exxon Mobil stock has averaged 4.3% per year. * 8 Penny Stocks That Have Fallen From Grace That's still disappointing, since the S&P 500 has returned almost 15% annually, including dividends. But it's not terrible in an environment in which U.S. Treasuries have yielded less than 3% most of the time.InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading TipsWe're still in that environment, with the 10-year Treasury yielding just 2.1%.It's true that buying a stock just for its yield can be very dangerous, as previous income darlings like General Electric (NYSE:GE), Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC), and Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE:BUD) all have cut their dividends recently.But Exxon Mobil doesn't have the debt problem those companies did (and still do) have. And while XOM stock has exposure to crude oil prices, it also uses a hedge to protect its profits. As a result, XOM stock price probably won't fall below $70 for long. And that makes XOM stock, currently at $75.50, an interesting play for income-focused investors in general and value-oriented, income-focused investors in particular. Why $70 Is a Key Level for XOM Stock PriceXOM hiked its quarterly dividend to $0.87 in May. That, in turn, suggests that investors are receiving $3.48 per share of XOM stock annually. And so, if the XOM stock price reaches $69.60, the stock would offer a yield of exactly 5%.It's difficult to see Exxon Mobil stock consistently yielding more than 5% for a few reasons. First, that type of yield is noticeable and usually not offered by relatively safe stocks. Of the Dow Jones Industrial Average stocks, only Dow (NYSE:DOW) and IBM (NYSE:IBM) offer higher yields. Both companies have real challenges (Dow is facing cyclical pressure and IBM has long-running growth problems).In the S&P 500, there are 35 components with higher yields. All have warts, among them AT&T (NYSE:T) and its debt load and Altria (NYSE:MO) which is facing concerns about long-term demand for its products.The second reason is that, historically, XOM stock has hardly ever yielded 5%. Its yield peaked at 5.5% during the 1987 market crash and touched 5% a few times through the early 1990s.But that was a very dark time in the crude oil markets, which had crashed after their early 1980s boom. Meanwhile, interest rates were much, much higher; investors could get 7% to 9% yields from10-year Treasuries.Without that alternative, a 5% yield from XOM stock is going to look very attractive. Indeed, in late May, as XOM and other oil stocks sold off, XOM stock bottomed just above $70. A bounce in crude prices helped, but it's likely that at least some investors saw the yield nearing 5% and pounced. Exxon Mobil Stock Is Safer Than It AppearsOf course, the question is whether Exxon Mobil stock really is safe. A 5% yield - or even a 4% yield - is attractive in this market. But what happens when crude prices plunge?The answer is that XOM's earnings will decline, but in a mostly manageable fashion. As I've written before, Exxon Mobil's "downstream'" operations - notably in refining - and its chemicals business provide an internal hedge. That's why XOM stock actually is a poor play on oil prices. But it's also why XOM stock didn't fall that far when the shale bust hit in 2016 - and why the company was relatively unscathed during the fourth quarter of 2018, which was disastrous for many oil and gas companies.If oil prices rise, XOM's upstream business will thrive and its downstream business will take a hit. When oil prices fall, the reverse is (usually) true. Despite this hedge, the XOM stock price is boosted by higher crude prices, as seen in 2014 when XOM stock hit an all-time high. But even amid a plunge in prices two years later, Exxon Mobil's dividend continued to rise,.XOM stock isn't risk-free. But Exxon's earnings easily cover the current dividend of XOM stock. The odds of XOM executing a GE-style dividend cut are slim, even with crude and natural gas prices relatively low. And this is an environment where, as I noted just last week, investors usually have to stretch for yield. If XOM is yielding 5% and 10-year Treasuries have a 2.1% yield, many investors are going to buy XOM stock. The TradeFor income investors, then, XOM looks reasonably attractive at $75.50. Its valuation is reasonable, at 14.4 times analysts' average forward earnings estimate. And XOM still looks poised to deliver further growth, as its CEO, Darren Wood, last year set a target of doubling the company's earnings by 2025.For traders, there's an intriguing option trade to be made as well. A bull put spread at $70 (selling the $70 put and buying a lower-priced put for protection) can offer double-digit returns or better, depending on the expiration date. That's essentially a bet that the XOM stock price won't be under $70 at expiration, which seems a nice bet to make at the moment.But there are some risks facing XOM stock at the moment. The U.S. presidential election could pressure XOM stock if a "green" Democrat was to win or even starts to gain momentum. A plunge in oil prices is another risk: Exxon Mobil does have hedges, but XOM stock still fell when crude collapsed in 2016.But there's risk everywhere when the market is at all-time highs, particularly for income investors. Getting a 4%+ yield from Exxon Mobil stock is one of the better risk-reward options out there at the moment. And that's precisely the point: investors aren't going to let a yield above 4% last for long. XOM stock isn't going to be the biggest gainer in the market over the next six months or the next three years. But, at the right price, it's an attractive dividend play.As of this writing, Vince Martin has no positions in any securities mentioned. More From InvestorPlace * 2 Toxic Pot Stocks You Should Avoid * 9 Retail Stocks Goldman Sachs Says Are Ready to Rip * 7 Services Stocks to Buy for the Rest of 2019 * 6 Stocks to Buy and 1 to Sell Based on Insider Trading The post Why $70 Looks Like a Floor for Exxon Stock appeared first on InvestorPlace.
- InvestorPlace•7 days ago
Did Cronos Group Just Become a Big-Time Sell?
What is going on with the cannabis space? Seemingly every stock in the group is getting sold lower, including Cronos Group (NASDAQ:CRON). In fact, what's even more interesting is the way that they're all selling off. CRON stock and others are positioning in a similar bearish setup.Source: Shutterstock It's drawing questions from observers as to why the industry is under such pressure. The inquiry becomes even more pressing as the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq are hitting new highs on a seemingly daily basis.How can equities be at a high while cannabis stocks are scraping multi-month lows?InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Breaking Down Cronos Group StockThere are dozens of cannabis stocks investors can consider -- that goes for almost any industry. And like any other sector, there are good companies and not-so-good companies to choose from. Luckily for Cronos stock, it is a good company. But that doesn't seem to matter right now, and that's because of the fundamentals.You see, even though CRON stock runs a good operation, this company has a $4.7 billion market capitalization and had just -- wait for it -- 6.5 million CAD in sales last quarter. This was up an impressive 120% year-over-year, but is a very small revenue number given its valuation. * 9 Retail Stocks Goldman Sachs Says Are Ready to Rip The company turned a pretty strong profit for the quarter, earning more than 400 million CAD. How's that possible on 6.5 million CAD in sales? CRON generated a non-cash unrealized gain of 436.4 million CAD on the revaluation of derivative liabilities.The cannabis space is a land grab right now. And the ones with the cash get to grab the most assets. Canopy Growth's (NYSE:CGC) big bank account was infused by Constellation Brands (NYSE:STZ). But now CRON stock can throw its hat into the ring, after it closed a $2.4 billion investment from Altria (NYSE:MO) in the most recent quarter.Now its balance sheet is strong, even if its income statement remains unimpressive. This vault will be important down the road. Earlier this month, Stifel analysts said the cannabis market could hit $200 billion in the next decade. That's up from $8 billion in 2018.The bottom line: you might look at the revenue underlining Cronos stock and question all the hype. But with more than $2.4 billion sitting in cash and making up half the market cap, it commands some respect. Trading CRON StockSo, did CRON stock just become a big-time sell? Not yet, but it could be soon. Aurora Cannabis (NYSE:ACB) is breaking down, while Canopy plunged through support. Both stocks were setting up as a descending triangle, a bearish technical development.Cronos stock isn't looking healthy, either.After falling hard on Friday and closing below the 200-day moving average, shares rebounded 4.5% on Monday. The stock closed just above this key moving average on Monday, but only by a dime. It's not clear whether Cronos stock will reclaim this mark or find it as resistance. Click to EnlargeBut that doesn't really matter because we know two things now. One, $14 support is a must-hold level. Unlike ACB, CGC and other cannabis plays, CRON stock is still clinging to its support level. Below $14 puts the June lows of $13.51 on the table, as well as the 61.8% retracement for the one-year range at $13.06.Below that and there's no immediate support level to lean on.The other thing that's clear? In order for Cronos Group stock to look healthy on the long side, we need to see it clear the $15 to $15.50 area. Over the past few months, $15.50 has been a relevant level, while both the 20-day and 50-day moving averages are trading in this range.It's a bit early to say Cronos Group stock is doomed, but it's not looking healthy as the industry draws in sellers. I'd rather wait for CRON stock to have the wind at its back than buying now and hoping support holds up.Bret Kenwell is the manager and author of Future Blue Chips and is on Twitter @BretKenwell. As of this writing, Bret Kenwell did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. More From InvestorPlace * 2 Toxic Pot Stocks You Should Avoid * 9 Retail Stocks Goldman Sachs Says Are Ready to Rip * 7 Services Stocks to Buy for the Rest of 2019 * 6 Stocks to Buy and 1 to Sell Based on Insider Trading The post Did Cronos Group Just Become a Big-Time Sell? appeared first on InvestorPlace.
- Zacks•8 days ago
Altria (MO) Stock Moves -0.26%: What You Should Know
Altria (MO) closed the most recent trading day at $49.41, moving -0.26% from the previous trading session.
- Motley Fool•8 days ago
The Highest-Yielding Dividend Stock in Marijuana
This increasingly cannabis-focused company currently yields 6.5%.
- Barrons.com•8 days ago
Altria’s Juul Deal Is Better Than Bears Think, Analyst Says
The tobacco giant’s stock has languished this year, on worries about cigarette volumes and the profitability of its e-cigarette investments. Yet Piper Jaffray argues that those worries look overblown given Altria’s growth potential from its stake in vaping startup Juul.
- Motley Fool•8 days ago
3 Top Dividend Stocks With Yields Over 5%
Just because AT&T, Shell, and Altria have high yields doesn't necessarily make them high risk.
- Business Wire•8 days ago
Altria to Host Webcast of 2019 Second-Quarter Results
Altria Group, Inc. will host a live audio webcast on Tuesday, July 30, 2019, at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss its 2019 second-quarter business results. Altria will issue a press release containing its business results at approximately 7:00 a.m.
- SAY•9 days ago
JUUL CEO Apologizes To Parents
Will no one think of the children? Well, Kevin Burns, the CEO of Juul Labs will. Burns recently apologized on behalf of his company, the most popular electronic cigarette on the market, for his product’s popularity with America’s youth. “First of all, I’d tell them that I’m sorry that their child’s using the product,” said Burns. “It’s not intended for them. I hope there was nothing that we did that made it appealing to them....” Run The JUUL JUUL launched in 2015 and quickly began to take over the electronic cigarettes game, controlling 40% of the market. As the popularity of vaping jumped over the past several years, the company has become so big that Altria (which also owns Philip Morris), the top U.S. cigarette company, invested $12.8 billion for a 35% stake. The Teens While those booming numbers are nice for JUUL and their shareholders, they have one big problem. One of the main groups that love to vape is teenagers, as federal data shows that nearly 21% of high school students hit the JUUL (or some other vaping device) last year. It has become so popular that the FDA recently declared teen vaping “an epidemic,” and former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb and health care advocates blame the rise in teen vaping on JUUL, saying that fruit flavors such as mango give the product a youth appeal. The anti-smoking advocacy group Truth found that 15- 17-year-olds are over 16 times likelier odds to be JUUL users compared to those aged 25-34. DIsclosure Some Altria shareholders have been pushing for JUUL to disclose nicotine levels, though a recent proposal was handily voted down. Also, the company has been having difficulties finding scientists willing to research the product on their behalf, which would make issuing any such reports that much more difficult. -Michael Tedder Photo: Mike Segar/Reuters
- Motley Fool•9 days ago
1 Top Cannabis Stock You Can Buy and Hold for the Next Decade
This company can help you cash in on the global marijuana boom.
Motley Fool•9 days agoCan IQOS Sales Light Up Philip Morris International's Q2?
The tobacco giant is counting on the heated-tobacco device to offset decline in traditional cigarettes.
- Bloomberg•9 days ago
No One Wants to Pay Budweiser’s $10 Billion Bar Tab
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- For a company that built its beer-brewing empire on the back of swashbuckling deals, the future for Anheuser-Busch InBev SA looks pretty unexciting.Friday’s decision by the Belgian giant to pull an initial public offering of its Asian unit, which might have raised as much as $10 billion, means it has given up the chance to pay down its $100 billion of debt faster. Perhaps more important, the brewer has lost a valuable source of funding for acquisitions in Asia.AB InBev had set a punchy price range for the listing, as noted by my colleague Chris Hughes. Even so, the decision to pull the IPO – rather than cut the price – is curious. A survey by Bernstein analysts indicated that there was significant interest among investors at HK$38 per share, which was below the HK$40-47 range but not that much lower. This reduced offer would have generated $400 million less than an IPO at the bottom of the price range, Bernstein notes. For the world’s biggest brewer, with a market capitalization of 157 billion euros ($177 billion), that would have seemed a small concession given the IPO’s considerable benefits.Without the prospect of the Asia listing, AB InBev has little choice but to knuckle down and gradually chip away at its mountain of borrowings. Net debt stood at $103 billion on December 31. The IPO would have cut the total by about 10%, according to Bernstein, and allowed the company to hit a key debt reduction target a year early. Now net debt will still be 4.2 times earnings at the end of this year. That’s better than the 4.6 times at the close of 2018, but it’s still too high. It underlines the slow pace of reducing the burden.This doesn’t leave the group much flexibility to do deals. True, the company could gear up further or use AB InBev shares as currency. But neither option is attractive. Investors would be justifiably nervous about borrowings rising even more. The group’s two biggest shareholders, Altria Group Inc. and Colombia’s Santo Domingo family, may not want to be diluted through any deal that was funded by equity.Cutting the dividend again to speed deleveraging is another option. The group should probably have gone further when it halved the payout in October. Still, such a decision wouldn’t be taken lightly.While it’s possible the IPO might return to the agenda, it’s hard to see what might change either the company’s or investors’ contrasting views of the Asian business’s value. With the prospects of the listing gone – at least for now – the king of beers is tasting pretty flat.To contact the author of this story: Andrea Felsted at afelsted@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: James Boxell at jboxell@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Andrea Felsted is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering the consumer and retail industries. She previously worked at the Financial Times.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- InvestorPlace•9 days ago
Cronos Needs to Show the Market Something to Pull Stock Out of Funk
Cannabis stocks need to fight their way out of their funk. That's true for names like Canopy Growth (NYSE:CGC) and New Age Beverages (NASDAQ:NBEV), but it's critical for Cronos Group (NASDAQ:CRON). CRON stock is not only down by a third since its March high, but is on the verge of breaking under a crucial technical support level.Source: Shutterstock Some -- perhaps most -- would argue that the shape of a chart is irrelevant. A chart's history shouldn't dictate its future. Rather, a company's results and prospects are reflected in its stock's movement.The fact is, however, the movement of a marijuana stock shapes the rhetoric about that company as much as it's shaped by the rhetoric. If Cronos stock slips any further, it would become alarmingly easy for the masses to view it as a liability.InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Charting CRON StockIt's not difficult to see.After an overheated rally in January and February set the stage for significant profit-taking in March and April, the 200-day moving average line (plotted on the white line on the chart below) began to serve as a technical floor. It's not yet become a pushoff point, though, and it doesn't appear it's going to. Just within the past several days the sellers have tested the pivotal 200-day moving average line as support again, and it's failing to even modestly repel the effort.The 200-day moving average line is regarded by some as the most important of all the trend indicators. It's admittedly simplistic, but still has significant psychological implications because so many traders still see it as a make-or-break level. * 7 Retail Stocks to Buy for the Second Half of 2019 There's modest encouragement in the fact that the weakness since March's high has been on relatively low volume. That suggests there's not necessarily a great deal of conviction behind the selling; investors are just biding their time.Conversely, the fact that the other aforementioned names, like most marijuana stocks of late, are falling is a red flag. Group-wide movement tends to indicate longer-lived, philosophical doubt. Analysts Still in DoubtStill, Cronos Group stock is a standout for all the wrong reasons. Chief among them is the fact that among all cannabis stocks, CRON stock remains one of the analyst community's least favorite.As of the most recent look, analysts collectively rate Cronos at a little less than a Hold … tiptoeing into Sell territory. Rivals New Age Beverages and Canopy Growth, for perspective, are considered a Buy and something that's almost a full Buy, respectively. Hexo (NYSEAMERICAN:HEXO) is also closer to a Buy than a Hold. Click to EnlargeReasons for the pessimism range from lack of clear capital spending plans to a sheer lack of story in an environment where a company's story is a powerful marketing tool. Given that the $1.8 billion investment Altria Group (NYSE:MO) made in CRON stock has now been closed for weeks as well, one would have expected a more definitive direction for a partnership than we've seen yet.More than anything though, analysts still take issue with the stock's crazy valuation.Cronos sports a $4.8 billion market cap, and though revenue of $6.5 million was only a fraction of what the company could be driving in just a few quarters, even the most optimistic of plausible output levels will fall short of justifying that sort of price. It's a reality made even more amazing considering analysts have cared little about other similarly frothy valuations among cannabis stocks. Wait and See on CRON StockIt's certainly possible CRON stock could dig its way out of trouble and use its 200-day moving average line as a launchpad rather than a trigger for more trouble. The stock's yet to break below it. * 10 Stocks to Sell for an Economic Slowdown Those hopes are fading fast though, as the broader realities of the legal marijuana business sink in. The most overvalued names in the business also make for the most susceptible targets. That's Cronos, to be sure.Whatever's in the cards, it's certainly not a time to step into the pot name. Newcomers will want to wait for a little more clarity before doing anything.The world will get a big dose of that clarity in the first half of August, when Cronos will be reporting its Q2 numbers.As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. You can learn more about him at his website jamesbrumley.com, or follow him on Twitter, at @jbrumley. More From InvestorPlace * 2 Toxic Pot Stocks You Should Avoid * 10 Stocks to Buy for Less Than Book * 7 Marijuana Stocks With Critical Levels to Watch * The 10 Best Dividend Stocks to Buy for the Rest of 2019 and Beyond The post Cronos Needs to Show the Market Something to Pull Stock Out of Funk appeared first on InvestorPlace.
