earnings season is upon us at a time when many companies are expecting to confirm evidence of an earnings recession investors are looking for any bright spots and if analyst sentiment is any indication altria group inc mo may be one of those bright spots this time around if they are it may be the catalyst investors have waiting for at the time of this writing mo stock is trading for 4451 that puts it down 17 in the last 12 months more significantly to valueconscious investors its trading over 10 of where the stock price was at the end of 2019 this is likely due to the longterm trend that shows smoking via combustible tobacco products is declining this is a trend that altria which is the parent company of philip morris international inc pm does not deny and it has some investors looking at altria as a yield trap the company has an impressive dividend yield of 845 but sometimes a companys dividend yield is high to attract investors into what is otherwise a troubled business that doesnt appear to be the case with altria the companys earnings and revenue have continued to grow even as they face yearoveryear comparisons that dont include pandemic restrictions altria reports earnings on april 27 2023 at this time analysts believe the company will post earnings of 118 per share with a midpoint revenue number of 492 billion both numbers would be higher than in the same quarter in 2022 analysts are expecting yearoveryear singledigit increases for both revenue and earnings in 2023 and for earnings they expect singledigit growth in 2024 as well altria continues to pivot to smokeless tobacco products as part of its moving beyond smoking initiatives in the companys most recent investor day presentation it cited two important goals one is to grow its total smokefree volume by at least 35 the second is to achieve 5 billion in revenue in five years with 2 billion of that coming from what the company terms as innovative smokefree products if altria is to hit those goals it will have to hope its 275 billion investment in the ecigarette startup njoy will pay dividends the company made the investment after exiting its stake in juul under terms of the deal altria gets full ownership of njoys evapor product portfolio this includes its ace podbased evapor product mo stock may win in any economy stocks such as altria will obviously benefit when the economy recovers however sin stocks also have a history of being defensive stocks that means that even when consumers cut back on many things theyre unlikely to cut back on feeding their vices that means if analysts expectations are confirmed by a bullish earnings report now may be a great time to invest in mo stock for starters its trading at around 13x earnings thats a discount to the current pe ratio of the sp 500 and also a discount to where many experts think it can go another point to consider is that earnings are expected to grow at a pace of about 79 in the next five years thats more than enough to support the companys dividend which will give investors a nice total return even if the stock price remains under pressure the article analyst sentiment may be the boost altria stock needs first appeared on marketbeat