Tobacco giant Philip Morris International has just bought the rights to a new technology for delivering nicotine in a aerosol spray. The upside: Nicotine addicts get their fix without all the toxins associated with smoking. The downside: It'll be at least three years before it hits the market.
Wall Street's consensus sees the S&P 500 tacking on an 11% gain over the next 12 months -- with lots of ups and downs along the way. That has us inclined to play defense, with an eye toward bargain stocks paying generous, sustainable dividends. Here are our top 11 picks for 2011.
Philip Morris revised down its forecast for 2010 full-year earnings per share to a range of $3.70 to $3.80 from the $3.75 to $3.85 per share range it had projected in April 2010. Taking out the currency impact, the maker of Marlboro -- the world's top-selling cigarette -- actually projects earnings per share to increase by approximately 14% to 17%, compared to $3.24 in 2009, up from the previous 10% to 13% range projected in April.
