Altria Group, Inc., through its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells smokeable and oral tobacco products in the United States. It offers cigarettes primarily under the Marlboro brand; large cigars and pipe tobacco under the Black & Mild brand; moist smokeless tobacco and oral tobacco products under the Copenhagen, Skoal, Red Seal, and Husky brands; oral nicotine pouches under the on! brand; …
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Competitive advantage assessment
Key strengths
Margins Consistently Above PeersGross margin at 72.2% (top 8%) and operating margin at 49.2% (top 0%) indicate strong pricing power.
Cost Leadership PositionOperating margin at 100.0th percentile with strong OpEx control demonstrates cost leadership.
Key risks
Liquidity ConcernsLiquidity is concerning (score 0.13), raising questions about short-term obligations.
The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks
against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.
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Where MO ranks in Consumer Defensive: Staples & Essential Services
Altria Group, Inc. ranks #24 of 265
scored companies in Consumer Defensive: Staples & Essential Services by moat score — the top 9%.
The widest moat in the group is Brown Forman Inc (BF-A)
at 93/100.
Moat scores for companies ranked near MO in Consumer Defensive: Staples & Essential Services
Pricing power is the ability to raise prices without losing volume.
Cost Advantage
Score 92
· 15% of the moat score
A cost advantage means delivering the same product for structurally less — better purchasing, denser distribution, a more automated process.
Customer Stickiness
Score 87
· 15% of the moat score
Stickiness is what makes revenue repeat without being re-won every year.
Capital Efficiency
Score 69
· 18% of the moat score
Capital efficiency asks what the company earns on the money tied up in the business.
Resilience
Score 53
· 17% of the moat score
Resilience is the capacity to get through a bad year on its own terms — enough liquidity, enough interest cover, and enough cash generation to avoid a rescue financing or a forced sale.
Scale & Market Position
Score 71
· 15% of the moat score
Scale matters only when it converts into economics.
Altria Group, Inc. (MO) scores 75 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as strong. It ranks #24 of 265 scored companies in Consumer Defensive: Staples & Essential Services, the top 9%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 264 companies in Consumer Defensive: Staples & Essential Services. Its strongest defense is Cost Advantage (92/100) and its weakest is Resilience (53/100).
How does Altria Group, Inc. compare with other Consumer Defensive: Staples & Essential Services companies?
Altria Group, Inc. ranks #24 of 265 scored companies in Consumer Defensive: Staples & Essential Services by moat score. The widest moat in Consumer Defensive: Staples & Essential Services is Brown Forman Inc (BF-A) at 93/100. The companies ranked closest are National Beverage Corp. (FIZZ) at 76 just above it and G. Willi-Food International, L (WILC) at 75 just below it.
How is the moat score calculated?
Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Corporate Default in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 264 companies in Consumer Defensive: Staples & Essential Services. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.
Why is Altria Group, Inc. scored with the Corporate Default template?
Most public companies sell a product or a service at a margin, so the moat question is whether that margin survives contact with competitors. The Corporate template scores the six defenses that show up in a general operating company's financial signature: whether it can hold price, produce more cheaply than rivals, keep its customers, earn a return above its cost of capital, withstand a downturn, and turn size into economics.
Which competitive defenses are measured for Altria Group, Inc.?
The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and MO scores: Pricing Power (82), Cost Advantage (92), Customer Stickiness (87), Capital Efficiency (69), Resilience (53), Scale & Market Position (71). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.
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