Five Best Tobacco Stocks to Buy Amid Industry Growth

#4 Vector Group Ltd (NYSE:VGR)

Investors with Long Positions (as of September 30): 17

Aggregate Value of Investors’ Holdings (as of September 30): $233.59 Million

Vector Group’s stock ended 2015 with gains of over 16%, but, it has not helped the stock win the confidence of smart money investors. Moreover, between July and September, the number of funds with long positions in the company inched down by two.

In its financial results for the third quarter, Vector Group Ltd (NYSE:VGR) reported EPS of $0.11, which was $0.07 lower than the estimates, however, the revenue of $449.93 million managed to beat the expectations by $36.93 million. For the last quarter of 2015 analysts estimate EPS of $0.18 on revenue of $401 million. For the current year, the Street expects Vector Group to post earnings of $0.80 on revenue of $1.80 billion.

Among the funds we track, Jim Simons‘ Renaissance Technologies owns about 5.79 million shares of Vector Group Ltd (NYSE:VGR), according to its last 13F filing.

#3 Reynolds American, Inc. (NYSE:RAI)

Investors with Long Positions (as of September 30): 33

Aggregate Value of Investors’ Holdings (as of September 30): $1.95 Billion

The total number of investors backing Reynolds fell by eight during the July-September period, but the aggregate value of their holdings surged by almost 54%, amid a 17% growth registered by the stock during the same period.

During 2015, Reynolds’ stock surged by more than 43%, and with a dividend yield of 2.98% and a forward price-to-earnings multiple of 18.5, the stock still looks attractive. In June, 2015, Reynolds American, Inc. (NYSE:RAI) finalized its $27.4 billion acquisition of Lorillard, which added the famous Newport brand to its already impressive portfolio. Recently, the company signed a vapor technology sharing agreement with British American Tobacco calling for collaboration on the development of the technology through 2022.

Neil Woodford‘s Woodford Investment Management heads our list of Reynolds American, Inc. (NYSE:RAI)’s stockholders as it owns some 14.41 million shares of the company.