Tobacco companies, however, are now back in the good times, according to Christopher Growe, Andrew Carter, and Matthew Smith at Stifel, a brokerage and investment-banking firm. “We continue to refer to this period of time as ‘The Golden Age,’ given the robust growth dynamic currently in place and we believe we could see upside to earnings during this period of volume growth even in relation to our strong current growth estimates,” the analysts in a note to clients on Wednesday.