precursory note: Not an analyst - just read a lot of tobacco industry reports Over the better part of the last decade, many tobacco stocks are down (BAT, PMI,

precursory note: Not an analyst - just read a lot of tobacco industry reports Over the better part of the last decade, many tobacco stocks are down (BAT, PMI, RT, JT etc,) however most dividends on their common stock are still increasing YoY. Not certain if it's generally above the market average but seems to be more than not. If you look at long term production rates (sticks shipped) cigarette manufacturing has been dropping YoY for years. But this is because there is a general drop in demand from higher socioeconomic countries generally and as consumers switch to "smokeless" "next-gen" alternatives. My observation is that single sticks are usually sold at a much higher price in those markets (sometimes due to tax and regulation, but mostly due to local market value), whereas they are sold closer to cost of production in lower socioeconomic countries where they target larger volumes per consumer. It's difficult to paint a picture from the data released in annual reports and market updates around what the transition (sticks -> e-cig consumable units) looks like and is perhaps purposefully obfuscated and will probably remain that way until forced otherwise. As such, relative points of comparison make their day to day activities harder to judge over the last few years but what everyone IS doing is huge amounts of M&A, Research and Capital Expenditure to meet this strategy whilst not raising capital from equity as their share price drops yet maintaining higher dividends. Why? Because they are cash rich. Much more generally, from a business perspective, what's happening in the tobacco industry is fascinating (and equal parts horrifying depending on your point of view) as these paragons of global supply chain pivot to become consumer electronics companies.