Is this not the greatest stock on earth?

"Altria, for instance, hasn't bought back any stock for the past four years because it wanted to forestall legal challenges to the spinoff of either Kraft or Philip Morris International. By refraining from share buybacks it built up its book equity, which is important to the courts in evaluating a company's financial strength. Altria now has a great balance sheet, with net debt of just $1 billion and annual pretax cash flow of $15 billion. With those numbers, it could comfortably support at least $30 billion of debt.

Both new Altria and Philip Morris International are likely to begin buying back stock aggressively once the breakup occurs. New Altria could repurchase $10 billion of stock and Philip Morris International $25 billion within 18 months. Altria's current market value is around $141 billion. "

http://www.smartmoney.com/barrons/index.cfm?story=20070921&afl=yahoo&hpadref=1&pgnum=2

For a layperson this stock seems like a Godsend. Altria is what you will find in the dictionary under "Cash Cow." Tons of cash; market dominance; a planned second spin off in less than a year that will slim down Altria even more and squeeze more value from Altria and the new Philip Morris International; a potential massive share buy-back.

I love smokers.