Setting aside all the questions of tobacco legislation, it is rare that one man can have so powerful an effect on the valuation of a public company. Imagine if he could have taken ten percent off the top of that. Tobacco-related shares remain perennially undervalued relative to earnings growth and yield, weighed down by social and moral concerns about the appropriateness of such investments. However, as with all such large disagreements comes opportunity of some kind or another. However, investors can reasonably expect that the 20 percent climb of the last 12 months might be repeated again.
Analysts still adjust their views after conference calls, though.
A Foolish Library For a change of pace, instead of using this space to plead with you to purchase some of our modest Foolish wares, allow us to shift the spotlight to some books not written by Fools. There you'll find a dozen titles which pass Foolish muster. We've read 'em, we like 'em, and we recommend them to you, too. Included are titles by Peter Lynch, Mary Meeker, Michael O'Higgins, David Chilton, William J. O'Neill, and Chuck Carlson. The Motley Fool.