Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) early Thursday posted mixed fourth quarter earnings results and offered an in-line outlook for 2017, as it continues to make progress in its e-cig development.
Written by StockNews.com
The New York City-based tobacco giant reported Q4 EPS of $1.10, which was $0.01 worse than the Wall Street consensus estimate of $1.11. Revenues rose 9.1% from last year to $6.97 billion, easily beating analysts’ $6.62 billion view, however.
PM noted that cigarette shipment volume of declined 4.4% in the latest period to 200.6 billion units. Meanwhile, HeatSticks e-cig shipment volume surged to 3.7 billion units in Q4 2016, up from just 62 million units in Q4 2015 when the product was first launched.
Looking ahead, PM forecast full-year 2017 EPS of $4.70 to $4.85, which straddles Wall Street’s current $4.74 estimate.
The company commented on its recent progress in the e-cig market via press release:
“We continue to make considerable progress on the development, assessment and commercialization of our Reduced-Risk Products. Our ambitious goal, to transform PMI from a manufacturer of combustible tobacco products to an RRP-focused company, took a further important step forward at the end of 2016 with the submission of our Modified Risk Tobacco Product Application for our heat-not-burn IQOS product to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.”
Philip Morris International Inc. shares rose $2.6 (+2.71%) in premarket trading Thursday. Year-to-date, PM has gained 4.87%, versus a 1.83% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.
PM currently has a StockNews.com POWR Rating of A (Strong Buy), and is ranked #1 of 10 stocks in the Tobacco category.
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