We recently published a list of 10 Best Performing Long Term Stocks So Far in 2025. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) stands against other best performing long term stocks so far in 2025.

Consumer morale fell more drastically than expected in April, owing to a surge in inflation expectations to unprecedented levels. According to the central bank’s monthly Survey of Consumer Expectations, respondents expect inflation to reach 3.6% within a year, up 0.5 percentage points from February and the highest since October 2023. This increase in inflation fears was coupled by increased labor market unease, the assessed possibility that unemployment will rise in a year, surging to 44%. This represents a 4.6-point increase and the highest reading since the COVID-19 outbreak began in April 2020.

The survey results come amid growing concern over the possible economic impact of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs. Many on Wall Street say they would fuel inflation and stifle economic development, while some analysts even fear that the United States may enter a recession within the next year. Meanwhile, Federal Reserve officials have expressed differing views, with some worrying that adjustments in consumer expectations might have immediate economic effects if they impact behavior.

Conversely, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller remarked on April 14 that he anticipates the effects of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on prices to be “transitory,” using a word that landed the central bank in hot water during the previous bout of inflation. Waller believes the market could swing two different ways, stating that greater and longer-lasting tariffs would cause a larger inflation jump initially to 4% to 5%, which would later recede as the economy slowed and unemployment soared. In the other, smaller-tariff scenario, inflation would approach approximately 3% and then fall off. Waller added the following:

“Yes, I am saying that I expect that elevated inflation would be temporary, and ‘temporary’ is another word for transitory. Despite the fact that the last surge of inflation beginning in 2021 lasted longer than I and other policymakers initially expected, my best judgment is that higher inflation from tariffs will be temporary.”

However, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari has other concerns. The 10-year Treasury yield rose in the second week of this month after Trump stated his plans to impose a 10% tax on all U.S. trade partners and threatened to apply tougher, selective levies before backing down on April 9. At the same time, the dollar has fallen more than 3% compared to a basket of global currencies, perhaps signaling a shift away from safe-haven US assets. This is what Kashkari had to say:

“Investors around the world have viewed America as the best place to invest, and if that’s true, we will have a trade deficit. So now one of the ways that expresses itself is in lower yields across asset classes in America. If the trade deficit is going to go down, it could be that investors are saying, OK, America no longer is the most attractive place in the world to invest, and then you would expect to see bond yields go up.”

Our Methodology

For this list, we sifted through financial media reports and compiled a list of equities that are frequently referred to as long-term investments. We then chose the 10 stocks that were most popular among elite hedge funds and those that analysts were optimistic about. The names on this list appear in increasing order by the number of hedge funds that hold them as of Q4 2024.

Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).

A close-up of an assembly line with a blend of tobacco products.

Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)

Year-to-date performance as of April 12: 7.88%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 47

Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) is a prominent American company that produces and markets tobacco, cigarettes, and associated products on a global scale. The firm has also ventured into next-generation nicotine products, such as oral nicotine pouches and electronic vaping devices.

Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) released fourth-quarter profits for 2024, with earnings per share of $1.29, in line with market estimates, while revenues of $5.11 billion exceeded expectations of $5.04 billion. Looking ahead to 2025, Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) forecasts adjusted diluted EPS in the $5.22 to $5.37 range, indicating a 2% to 5% increase over its $5.12 EPS in 2024.

Following Altria’s presentation at the CAGNY conference, Citi analyst Adam Spielman maintained a Neutral rating on the MO stock with a $52 price target. During the conference, Altria’s leadership stressed the growth of overall US nicotine volumes, which have climbed at a compound annual growth rate of 2% over the last five years. This increase is linked to a shift in customer preferences toward vapor and current oral nicotine products. According to Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO), heated tobacco products are predicted to account for 5% of the US nicotine market in the long term.

Andvari Associates stated the following regarding Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:

“Last year, Andvari made its first investments in tobacco companies with the purchase of Philip Morris International and Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO). At the time of our purchase, Philip Morris and Altria had underperformed the S&P 500 over the prior 5- and 10-year periods. Both traded at low valuations and with high dividend yields. But thanks to following the industry o and on for 10+ years, and thanks to many discussions with long-time shareholders of the companies, Andvari felt the time was right to make the plunge. The timing could not have been much better for us as both companies have so far contributed positively to Andvari’s recent overall performance.

The problem—or the feature, depending on your perspective—with the tobacco industry has been a declining population of cigarette smokers in developed countries. Over the last four or five years, the decline in these smoking populations has accelerated, which in part explains the poor share performance of the tobacco companies between 2017 and 2023. Despite this, the tobacco companies have maintained, or slowly increased, their revenues and profits with regular price increases on cigarettes…” (Click here to read the full text)

Overall, MO ranks 8th on our list of best performing long term stocks so far in 2025. While we acknowledge the potential for MO as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%.  If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than MO but trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.