Investopedia: Altria's Ever-Shrinking Window

It's probably foolish to think that smoking will ever go away entirely. The health risks have long been decided, but people have their vices and smoking has long been among them. That said it seems like governments around the world are on the same page when it comes to reducing the number of places people can smoke, and increasing the cost of doing so. That suggests an ever-shrinking window for Altria (NYSE:MO), but investors can likely wring a great deal of cash flow for many years to come.

Year-End Results Come in as Expected  
Altria's earnings are often a mess, but the company's fundamental performance was more or less in line with expectations. Revenue net of excise tax rose 5%, as weaker cigarette volumes were offset by better performance in smokeless tobacco.

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Seeking Alpha: SABMiller - An Excellent Play On Emerging Markets

Beer is admittedly not the greatest growth market in the world. You can find beer in almost every corner of the world and consumption growth more or less tracks GDP growth. Nevertheless, while SABMiller (Nasdaq: SBMRY.PK) may not be in position to post eye-popping topline growth, few other companies are so poised to take advantage of population and income growth in the emerging markets of the world.


Everywhere But Here
Miller and Miller Lite are pretty well known brands to American investors, but the fact remains that for all of the well-known brands like Miller, Peroni, Pilsner Urquell, and Grolsch, only about one-third of the company's business comes from North America and Europe (combined). SABMiller's Latin American business is larger than either of those regions and Asia is growing quickly in importance.

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SABMiller: An Excellent Play On Emerging Markets

Investopedia: Constellation Waits For The Stars To Be Right

Can the largest publicly-traded wine business regain the shareholder love it once enjoyed? Constellation Brands (NYSE:STZ) rode a heck of a wave as wine consumption took off in the U.S. about 10 years ago and the company acted as a major consolidator. Since then, though, the company has found that its empire hasn't quite validated the debt that underwrote its construction and the stock has not been the winner that its owners may have expected. 


A Sluggish Start to the Fiscal Year
Constellation Brands did not get its new fiscal year off to a roaring start. While reported revenue dropped more than 19%, organic revenue grew about 2%. Shipments fell more than 3%, depletions were down more than 2% and results in wine were generally disappointing. While the company's beer distribution business is doing pretty well, the company is losing some share in wine to the likes of Gallo, Wine Group and Trinchero.

Profitability was a better story, though. Gross margin jumped about five full points and operating income grew 12% from last year's level. Some of this improvement was due to less promotional spending - a mixed blessing that boosts margins but takes a toll on sales growth and market share. 



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