Philip Morris International Inc. PM is one of the leading manufacturer and distributor of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products in approximately 180 countries in the European Union, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Canada.
Philip Morris has seen soft cigarette volume trends for the past few quarters, due to a general shift away from tobacco products amid accelerating prices of cigarettes and worldwide anti-tobacco campaigns. In addition, a strengthening dollar leads to unfavorable foreign currency impact on Philip Morris, which generates significant revenues from its international operations.
Investors should also note that earnings estimate for PM has been revised upward during the last 30 days. Further, the company has a decent history when it comes to recent earnings reports as the stock has posted a positive surprise in all the four quarters, with an average surprise of 12.47%.
Currently, PM has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), but that could definitely change following Philip Morris’ earnings report which was just released. We have highlighted some of the key stats from this just-revealed announcement below:
Earnings Beat: PM beats on earnings. Our consensus earnings estimate called for EPS of $1.11/share, and the company reported EPS of $1.24 instead. Investors should note that these figures take out stock option expenses.
Revenues Beat: PM reported revenues of $6.9 billion. This surpassed our consensus estimate of $6.7 billion.
Key Stats to Note: Cigarette Shipment volume went down 1.5% year over year.
The company raised its currency neutral earnings per share growth outlook for fiscal 2015 to a range of 11% to 12% compared to a range of 9% to 11% expected earlier.
Check back later for our full write up on this PM earnings report later.
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